Things You Shouldn’t Do on a Shared or Public Computer
Public or shared computers come in handy when you need something urgent, or might be away from your PC. Given that you might be in such a situation, it’s possible to make some silly mistakes that could ruin your privacy, infect your external devices or cause you to incur financial harm. Here, is a list of a few things you should never do on a shared or public computer, regardless of how urgent the situation may be.
If you have to use a public or shared computer, make sure you do not do the following things.
1. Don’t Connect Your Cell Phone to a Public Computer
Shared computers are a prime spot for hackers and viruses. When you connect your mobile devices to these public computers, those viruses may get onto your device. In addition to infecting your device, they will infect any computer or device you connect your mobile phone to later on, spreading the virus, malware, etc.
So, do not tether your device to a public computer at all costs to keep it safe. Even if you have to, perform a malware scan beforehand to remove any viruses from the computer before connecting your device.
Moreover, when you need to transfer a specific file from the shared computer to your cell phone, you should scan it for viruses separately as an additional security measure. Mal Ware Bytes is an excellent tool that will help you in this regard.
2. Don’t Use Your Credit Card on a Shared Computer
Making on line purchases on a shared computer is one way to expose your credit card information. You might save the credit card details on a browser by mistake, or the browser may retain the data as a cookie that someone else using the computer can later access. When this happens, you may not discover the credit card information leak until the following day when you see some big purchases on your card. In light of the risks involved, don’t put your hard-earned money at risk by using your credit card on a shared computer to grab a lasting discount. There are privacy cards you can get that will help, but over all, done use a debt/credit card on a shared computer.
3. Do not access your Personal/Business Online Accounts on Public Computers.
Logging in to your personal/business account in a browser on a shared computer could leak all your saved passwords, sign-in data, and autofill information, including your credit card and personal information. Scammers would take advantage of such information if it were to reach their hands. Furthermore, while revealing such information could compromise your security, the worst-case scenario would be if you leave the computer with your account logged in. Whenever you use a browser on a shared computer, use the incognito or guest mode.
4. Don’t Work on a Signed-In PC
5. Don’t Connect External Storage Devices to the Shared Computer
