Digital Survival - internet cafe

Internet café security checklist

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:58:52 +0000

Internet cafés can be very useful for people who do not have their own computers or internet connections. You pay to use the computer by the minute or the hour, and you don't have to deal with any day-to-day computer maintenance, as you would with your own machine. However, internet cafés present security risks of their own. There are many users coming in and out every day, which means a greater chance of virus infection and even the possibility of others spying on your activities. Nevertheless, internet cafés can be useful for avoiding internet surveillance but you have to know what steps to take to ensure that you remain anonymous and do not leave any trace of your activities behind when you leave. Your aim should always be to leave the computer in the state you found it – as if you've never even been there.

Make informed choices; make sure the internet café you use is well-known and recommended. Look to see if lots of people are using it, and consider asking for recommendations from friends or locals in the area.
Check if the computers have anti-virus software running. Also note whether users are allowed to plug their own devices into the computers; for example, digital cameras. The more interaction between the computers and other devices, the higher the risk of coming into contact with viruses.
Use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer: at the moment there are fewer viruses made for Firefox because it is newer software than Internet Explorer. Take a look at GetFirefox.com and see what it looks like so that you can recognise it in an internet café. If the computers do not have Firefox installed, consider using it as a portable application.
Check for malware: to start your session securely, you need to check that the computer you are using is not already infected. It's a good idea to run the Avast portable application from your USB drive. Otherwise, use an online malware tool to check the computer for malware. A good tool for this purpose is Housecall which is free and only requires a small download (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/)
Leave No Trace
Protect your personal details: when logging in to your various internet accounts, make sure that you don’t select the option to save your details. When you have finished, click the 'log out' option; if you just close the browser window of Gmail, for example, the next person who tries to access Gmail will be taken straight in to your email account. Make sure that any information you fill in on any internet forms is not saved. To do this, go to: Tools > Internet Options > Content > Autocomplete > Clear Forms and Clear Passwords > Ok.
Delete your internet history. When you've finished your session, clear your cookies (small text files saved on the computer that can identify you and what you did) as well as the internet history which lists the sites you visited. In Internet Explorer, go to: Tools > Internet Options > Delete Cookies and Clear History > Ok. Deleting the files may take a few minutes so make sure you leave time for this at the end of your internet session.
In Firefox versions 3.5 or later there is an option for 'Private Browsing', where none of your history or information will be retained, or there is an option to 'Clear Recent History'. You'll find both of these options under Tools.
Delete any saved documents: if you have saved anything to the computer, make sure that you delete your files, both from the folder you saved them in and from the recycle bin of the computer.

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malware

Firefox

Private Browsing

internet cafe

Internet Explorer

security

Computer viruses

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:37:41 +0000

If you use a computer, the sad fact is that you need to know about computer viruses. There are many different ways to classify viruses, each with its own set of colourfully named categories. Worms, macroviruses, trojans and backdoors are some of the more well-known examples. Many of these viruses spread over the internet using email, malicious webpages or other means to infect unprotected computers. Others spread through removable media, particularly devices like USB memory sticks and external hard drives that allow users to write information as well as reading it. Viruses can destroy, damage or infect the information on your computer, including data on external drives. They can also take control of your computer and use it to attack other computers.
To protect yourself from these threats, you need to install an anti-virus application, and run it regularly. There are both proprietary and FOSS versions of these. If you buy a computer, it will probably not have anti-virus programmes pre-installed, so you need to decide which to use. Whichever you choose, ensure that it scans your computer for viruses as well as spyware. Some programmes combine the two functions, while others are separate. A good combination is the two open source applications: Avast anti-virus and Spybot anti-spyware.
You can find out more about these and download them free of charge in the Hands-on Guides in the Security in-a-box toolkit.

Avast: http://security.tacticaltech.org/avast_main
Spybot: http://security.tacticaltech.org/spybot_main

Internet café security note: If you're working in internet cafés you are not going to know if the computer you're working on is infected or not. That's why Avast virus cleaner has a portable application which you can run straight from your USB flash disk. You can download it from the Avast website here: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html

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FAQs: File management

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:44:26 +0000

I just saved a file and want to copy it to my USB drive but I can't find it when I browse for it in 'My Computer'. Where is it?

The very first time you save a file, the application will open up a dialogue box (usually called 'Save As') that will ask you if you want to 'Save in' a particular folder. It's important to pay attention to which folder this is. Often applications have a default folder that they will save to; for instance, Word will save automatically in 'My Documents'. If in doubt, click on 'Save As' and this will show you the folder where your file is being saved. You can then browse to the folder via 'My Computer'. Alternatively, you can always use your operating system's “search” or “find” functions.

What is the difference between 'My Computer' and 'My Documents' (in Windows)... or my 'hard drive' and my 'Home' folder? (on Linux and Mac OS X)

Your operating system will create a hierarchy of folders and files when it is installed on your hard disk. In Windows, the top-level, most comprehensive folder can be found as the C:\ Drive when you open 'My Computer'. In it, you will find the system folders and the programme files. Other operating systems will call this location the hard drive. On Windows, 'My documents' holds all the files and folders that you will personally create. Putting all your personal files and sub-folders within one folder makes it very easy for you to back up your files or move them to another computer. On other operating systems, such as Linux or Mac, this location may be called your 'Home' folder.

How can I create shortcuts to the files I use most often?

Clicking on 'My Computer' in Windows allows you to browse through the folder hierarchies and find the file you need. If you click on the file with your right mouse button you will see an option to 'create shortcut' in the drop down menu. After you click on 'create shortcut', a new highlighted icon will appear with a small arrow on it to indicate that it is a shortcut. This icon can be dragged anywhere you would like (most people put them on their desk top). Then you just click on the newly created icon when you want to open that file.

Where are my actual music files located?

Most music files are organised and stored by your music player in a folder, in your Home folder, called something like 'Music'. This can be confusing because most music players, such as iTunes, allow you to browse through and play your music within something called a 'Library'. Most music players are designed to prevent the copying of music files and so you can't actually copy the music file from the 'Library' itself. You have to find the music file using your file browser rather than your music player.

How can I transfer files from one computer to another?

The easiest and most popular way of transferring files from one computer to another is with a removable storage device;

USB Flash drive: also known as flash stick, pen drive and USB stick. These terms all refer to the same thing: a small thumb-sized drive that you attach to your computer via its USB port. They have replaced the old floppy disks.
External hard drive: computers are made with an internal hard drive but if this gets full or if you have a lot of information you want to back up (especially sound and video files, as they take up a lot of space), you can temporarily or permanently add another, external hard drive. These, like the flash drive, connect to your computer via USB. They come with different amounts of memory (although all in gigabytes, or 'gigs'). Some are designed to be portable.

USB drives can be helpful if you use internet cafés – you can write your emails on a home (or other trusted) computer, load them onto the USB drive, send them from the computer in the café, and then use the same device to store emails you've received. USB drives even allow you to run the software applications you use at home on the internet café computer. See section 2.4.6: Portable Applications.

TIP- Be careful when using USB drives or external hard drives; it's very easy to transfer viruses along with files. Make sure your anti-virus programme is configured to automatically scan any device attached to your computer.

How do I back up my files?

Backing up is incredibly important. Try to designate one day a week where you make copies of all of your files and store them on an external source such as a flash drive, external drive, CD-R or DVD-R disc. The easiest way to do this is simply to copy your 'User' folder. In Windows this is the folder, found in 'Documents and Settings', that carries your user name.

The free programme Cobian for Windows can help you back up all your files at once and store them together. One handy thing about using a programme like Cobian is that it will allow you to do an 'incremental' back-up. This means that only new and recently modified files will be saved afresh, and not files which haven't changed since the last time you ran your back-up. To find out more about this option and how to install it, look at http://security.ngoinabox.org/cobian_main

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