Let’s face it. Public internet terminals simply are not safe for anything more than general browsing. In fact, public internet terminals are hardly even safe for that. Logging into your bank account or any other financial account at a public terminal could end up as a nightmare. It is not advised to use public terminals to access any accounts of this type. You would be surprised how easily thieves can access your private information through a public terminal. Unfortunately, it is not possible to always avoid using public terminals to make transactions from your personal accounts.How to Improve Your Security When Using a Public Terminal

Public internet terminals carry a lot of risk due to the fact that hackers can easily steal information from your PC. Criminals have a variety of tricks up their sleeves when it comes to stealing information. Session logging and key loggers are to two most popular ways of stealing information via the web. These techniques have different abilities, but both techniques have the same main goal in mind. That goal is to steal your information and money. Do not let yourself become a victim.

Session Logging

Session logging happens a lot more often that you may think. Coffee shops, airports, and any other place are prime targets for information thieves. You can easily become a target if you do not take the proper precautions to protect yourself. It is important to understand that any website that you visit online is one hundred percent visible. Your internet service provider can see this information as well as anyone who works at the coffee shop, airport, or other Wi-Fi connectivity hotspot. Secure websites are not displayed to anyone. You can tell when a website is secure. The web address with begin with https rather than http. The information from these websites is encrypted for security purposes. The information is still visible, but it looks like a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

Yahoo and Gmail provide secure connections not matter where you are signing in from. When signing into your email from a public internet terminal you should be sure that the server is secure. If you use online banking you are safe. Banks always operate secure encrypted websites. It is time to learn a few tricks of your own to protect yourself against hackers in public terminals.

A secure anonymizing program like Tor can help you turn any unsecured website into an encrypted one so that you can surf securely. Tor is available for free and is a very user friendly program. It allows the user to surf the web anonymously without fear of hackers seeing any private information.

KeyLoggers

Keyloggers are another danger of using a public internet terminal. Entering passwords safely using a public terminal is basically impossible if a key logger is being used to track the information entered. Each key stroke is tracked. If you can avoid entering your passwords when using a public internet terminal do it. If you cannot, there are a few things that you can do to beef up security. A password manager is one of the many options that you have when it comes to protecting your passwords. RoboForm2Go is a good password manager.

Other defensive measures that you can take to protect your password are to make sure that you develop strong passwords that are difficult to crack. When inputting your password, do not type it. Copy and paste letters that make up your password and enter it into the password field when using a public internet terminal. It may sound silly, but it will provide you with the security you need not to become a victim.

Author Bio: Jason Phillips has authored hundreds of quality posts and published them various sited and blogs. His article on record terminal session was really helpful for people to understand the terminal better.