Public computers for Email bad?

I thought most people use libraries/public computer for email, that's the NUMBER 1 use!?
http://www.moneygirls.org/browsesafe.htm
4. Don?t EVER use public computers to read you "original" email or to any other thing that demand you to type any logins or passwords. Public computers are many times fitted with Trojan horse programs that can be used to capture your keyboard pressings (=logins + passwords). These history files can be collected by the hacker later or sent via email.....and off he gets his hands into your email, etc. (as a side comment? this is the easiest way to get your passwords)

 

Heard of a guy working in a Hotel in the New England States who will tell you all the guests are crazy for using their Public PC in the Lobby to do their email and transactions. He works at night without any keylogger as he does the audit in the back room.

 

Hi polo and MyNethingman! By using an encryption arrangement such as that provided by PGP or ZipLip you could use these services with relative safety and privacy, couldn't you? I am not totally familiar with PGP (others can comment further) but with Ziplip you use some other means to provide your recipient with the password then send your e-mail encrypted. They can decrypt it with the password. Perhaps it's a little cumbersome but how else to ensure security?

I suspect that the reason the public computers are so popular with users is because of their ignorance of how these services really work! Most likely they assume that their communications are anonymous, when this is very far from true, as illustrated above. As Polo asserts indirectly, these people need to be brought up to speed on how things are really done before they can make informed choices about their communications arrangements.

It does not have to be a hacker on the public computer. There could be a keylogger placed there by the administrator! It is my understanding that most, if not all, public computers in Canada have keyloggers on them, put there as a security and safety measure by the owners/administrators.

 

I am going to disagree with you on that one freind. When I use a public computer I install SB S&D on it first and clean it up. I do find lots of bad stuff sometimes, but these systems get whiped often, and I never got the impression it was an admin.

Surprising how many programs can be installed without admin priveledges but can't be uninstalled without admin priveledges! I swear comapnies like gator do this on purpose.