Safer Computing- How to avoid being hacked.

I've heard a number of people complained about their social networking account, e-mail, online game account and other online accounts being hacked. Does this mean that there are 'hackers' that will go after your account? Unless you are doing a lot of online transactions or you are an CEO of a large company, then you are a possible target of real hackers.

But how come somebody hacked your account? Changed your e-mail, instant messaging passwords? Or someone defiled  your social networking site profile? Or you lost your online game cash and/or rare items? The possibility is you logged into any of your online account using a public computer like an internet cafe's. Here is a list of some possibilities that almost ordinary people can get your password and hack into your account and how to avoid them specially when using a public computer.

1. Do Not check the Keep Me logged In  Almost all online log-in forms these days have this Keep me logged in check box. Use this only if you are using your own computer but never in a public computer. This option will keep your account logged in even if you have closed the browser, unless you have logged out manually.



2. Always log out your account - always log-out your account before you close the browser
3. Do not select Remember the Password - In a public computer, never select the 'Remember the Password'. If you do, your user name and password can be viewed.
4. Use Mozilla Firefox - One thing I love about Firefox is its security feature. Under tools->options select privacy, clear history and cookies, also under security, check the saved password and click the remove all.

5. Key Logger - some one could have installed a key logger before you used that computer. Although most good anti-virus and anti-malware can remove this, I still hear that this was used recently. A key logger is a program that records keyboard activities and stores it into a text file.Also most Internet cafe's are using deepfreeze that removes anything (except some virus) after it has frozen a drive.

How to prevent key loggers from recording your password? This is quite unusual but it works in most cases. When entering your password add some extra characters in between like if your password is 'mypass' (without the quotation marks) you type it 0my1pass. Then use the mouse to move the cursor between the 3rd and 4th character and press delete then use the mouse again to click before the first character and press delete. Don't use the arrow keys, it will be recorded also thus it will be easy to decipher which key deleted.


This is all for now. If you have more tips in this regard, leave a comment here or on my cbox. have a safer computing