As you no doubt realize, passwords are the keys to our
resources, our belongings and our online accounts, including our
finances. While using our own home or office facilities, most of
us work hard at keeping the possibility of having our
information monitored or stolen at as low a level as possible.
But the threat is still quite real. Part of our protection armor
must include the use of protection software such as virus
scanners and spyware scanners. It really is a very bad idea to
use any internet connected computer today that does NOT have any
means of virus or spyware protection. Almost all new computers
sold today come equipped with some form of protection
pre-installed. And a variety of alternate programs and services
are available, many of them at no cost.
But what do you do if you are not at your home or office? This
poses a much greater security risk to your password and account
safety. Examples and accountings of hijacking of passwords, of
tracking surfing activity and of capturing screen information of
a user seem to be a common occurrence.
The best method of dealing with these facilities is to simply
not use them for any medium or high security uses such as
accessing bank accounts or other highly sensitive services you
But, of course we don't live in a vacuum and circumstances may
dictate that you simply must do so at various times. So when it
is essential, there are many steps you should take to ensure
your own security. These steps will take a few minutes, but will
increase your security by a wide margin and give you peace of
mind that your passwords, accounts and information are not being
First, ensure that the computer you are using is free from
spyware. The most vicious of spyware forms is "key logging"
software that records your keystrokes. This will instantly
compromise your passwords and everything those passwords allows
access to. If the computer you are using has one of the brand
name spyware scanners installed, run it to ensure there are no
hidden threats lurking behind the scenes. On many public
machines, the start menu will offer a virus or spyware
selection. If there are none of these available on the machine,
you can visit one of a number of websites to run a spyware scan
without installing a complete application on the computer,
which, since it is a public computer, is likely not allowed.
There are a number of these out there and you can pick one (or
more!) from an internet search for the words "online spyware
scan". Most of these require a script be installed and run and
will take a few minutes to identity the cleanliness of the
computer. Follow the instructions given by the software vendor's
website. If there are threats that cannot be easily removed by
the software, move on to another machine and advise the owner of
The next step you should take is to ensure the browser you will
be using will not store your usernames and passwords. For
Internet Explorer, this function is called "autocomplete" and
can be disabled through the options setting of the menus. It is
good practice to test that this has actually been turned off by
logging into one of your accounts with a phony password. Then
close and restart the internet browser and start the login
process again. If the system does not offer you a "remembered"
password as you type in the same username and phony password
once again, you know that it is not storing your passwords. You
can then login with your real username and password. On the
other hand, if it brings up a password or username before you
have completed typing it, do not put in your real information,
but go back and try turning off "autocomplete" once again.
Otherwise, you should simply move on to another machine.
Once you have accessed your accounts and have completed your
sessions, make sure you purge as much of your activity from the
computer as possible. Be sure to delete all "temporary files"
and all "cookies" from the machine. This is done from selections
under the options setting of the browser you are using. This
helps erase your tracks from any prying eyes after you leave the
Our information, accounts, resources and the passwords that
unlock all of them are too valuable to leave for granted or to
Knowing how to use passwords away from home is only a portion of
the methods and techniques we all need to know to protect our
belongings, our security and our personal and family identities.
You too can learn how to simply and easily create a number of
secure passwords that avoids being compromised by any number of
methods, and at the same time will be easily remembered. Visit
the Easy Create and
Remember Secure Passwords web site at