There are times that everyone has to use a public computer for some reason. Either we are traveling and we are using the computer at the hotel, we have to go into the computer lab to finish an assignment, or we have to use a friend's computer because ours is unavailable. We are usually looking up our bank information, email, or other personal data that could become available to another user of that computer if we do not safeguard it. For example, users often will click on remember me when they are presented a prompt to remember their passwords. Now, the next person that uses the computer could get access to your information. Even if we are diligent in making sure we sign out of all of our accounts and we make sure that none of the accounts are remembered, there could be a software application known as a “keylogger” installed on the machine that could record all of our keyboard strokes. This means that whatever keystrokes were entered into the computer are being recorded into a file that the hijacker could use for malicious intent. So, the bottom line is don’t use a public computer right? Well, that is the ideal option but it is not the feasible option since you cannot be expected to have your computer everywhere. So how can we use these public computers and still feel safe?
1. Buy a flash drive of at least 8gb or higher.
I personally recommend the Patriot XT 16gb since it is large enough and it offers increased read/write performance over most other flash drives for a reasonable cost. You can buy the drive here: Patriot XT.
Now you are probably asking yourself, what does a flash drive have to do with securing your personal data? Well, the flash drive is going to be used to store all of the applications we run instead of having to use what is installed on the public computer. This means that all of the history information will be written to the flash drive and not the public computer.
2. Download the LiberKey software located here: LiberKey Download
This is the software that will install on to your thumbdrive that will allow you to run applications from your thumbdrive instead of the computer. For example, even if the public computer you are running does not have Firefox on it, by plugging in the thumb drive, you will now be able to run it without having to go to the internet and install it.
3. So after you finished downloading it, plug your thumb drive in and then run the software installation.
It will ask you to accept the EULA, and click ok. Keep clicking through until you get here:
Click on Browse and you need to select whichever drive your thumb drive is.
4. It will then tell you that the directory is not created, and would you like to create a new one.
Go Ahead and click ok. It will then ask if you would like a shortcut placed on the desktop, so just select which ever option you choose, and then click finish. Congratulations, you are just about halfway there, and now you just need to get the applications on to the thumbdrive.
When you plug in the drive, navigate to the drive using windows explorer and open up the LiberKey Folder:
6. And then double click on the liberkey.exe icon.
When you run it, you will see a picture that looks like this:
Click Download list of available software suites.
For most people, the Basic suite is what you are going to want to install. This includes Firefox and a password manager so go ahead and click basic suite and then click the install button at the bottom.
7. Once everything is installed, you are ready to go and you can start using this on any computer.
However, I recommend first setting up the password portion before ever using it on another computer. Once everything is installed, go ahead and open up liberkey by clicking on the button on the right portion of your task bar:
8. When you click on it a menu comes up with a list of options. Go ahead and click security and then click password manager.
9. You will now click new and create a master password.
Make sure it is something you can remember, but I recommend using some special characters and symbols for added security. Then click the option for using master keypass file and select the drive where the thumbdrive is located.
10. Click through the options until you get here:
11. Now create entries for all of your personal data such as mobile banking, email, school information and so on.
It is as easy as clicking one of the groups and right clicking and selecting new entry on the right pane. When you do so you should see a box asking for title, username, and password. Now give it a meaningful title such as banking information, put in the username that you use for the site, and then the password that you use for the site and click ok.
13. Now all that is left is to save the key pass information and this is achieved by hititng the save icon at the top of the screen.
Now choose the thumbdrive for where this information should be saved and there you have it.
14. Now when you use this application on another computer, all you have to do is plug in the thumb drive and open up through windows explorer the liberkey folder as previously described.
Open up Liberkey.exe and it will place an icon on your system tray. Always elect to use Firefox from here instead of launching from the start menu on the computer. When you need to use a password, open up keypass and specify your password. Then Find the entry and just right click the entry and select copy password instead of ever typing it. This will guard against any key loggers on any system. The purpose of using firefox on the thumbdrive is so that none of the internet history is stored on the machine. The reason you always do a copy and paste for passwords is so that a keylogger will never be able to find out your password. If you use these steps, you will not have to worry about personal data being stolen from you on public computers.
For More information check out this site: LiberKey Support Forum.
For More information check out this site: LiberKey Support Forum.
