Take These Precautions in a Cyber Café

In India, I visited many a cyber café which were in a sorry state both in terms of hardware and software, even those part of larger well-known cyber café chains. People visit these places usually for the Internet, and so it doesn’t matter whether the hardware and software are state-of-the-art or not as long as the web browser is functional.

Everybody, even those owning a PC may have to visit a cyber café some time or the other. Unlike a place like Starbucks with free wifi where you can plug in your PC into the network, a large number of cyber cafés require you to use their own systems. If you find yourself in such a place, keep the precautions suggested here in your mind. Most consumers overestimate PC safety. If you’re one of these most consumers, pay more attention.

Unplug any media devices like floppies, CDs, DVDs, and pen drives if they are not yours or if you are not going to use them. Floppies and pen drives are especially prone for communicating infections.

Clear all private data from the web browser before and after using the Internet. This itself could save you a lot of embarrassment and security with the usage of Internet, remove any weak malicious scripts originally running in the background, and delete any passwords it may have saved without notifying you. For Internet Explorer, Tools -> Internet Options -> Browsing History -> Delete, checking everything (except the option of preserving favorite website data). For Mozilla Firefox, Tools -> Clear Private Data, checking everything.

Use a proxy site for whichever site it may be possible for greater anonymity, especially from the future visitors of the cyber café.

Don’t be surprised if the system is infested with viruses, adwares and spywares. Viruses usually harm the computer, not you, so ignore them. Adwares annoy you, but usually nothing more, so again ignore them. Spywares can track your usage patterns, even collect sensitive data from you (including passwords), so be extra careful about signing into any of your accounts and think four times before opening your online bank accounts. Most online banking websites these days offer a virtual keyboard, so make use of them for extra security.

Before leaving, double-check everything and make sure to permanently delete any files you may have saved on the computer. All said and done, it is always a better idea to trust thy neighbour than that cyber café. At least you can nail down the usual suspects.