Protect your password in cyber cafe and on public computers
[B]Protect your password in cyber cafe and on public computers:[/B]
[B][I]Source : Email forward[/I][/B]
Some time or the other, you must have used cyber dafe or public computers to access internet or mail. Public computers are most prone to password hacking. Anyone can simply install a keylogger software to hack your password. Keylogging is one of the most insidious threats to a user's personal information. Passwords, credit card numbers etc.
It is now very easy for the keylogger to harvest passwords. Each and every keystroke (whatever you type on the keyboard) gets recorded in the keylogger software and the person installing it can easily view what you have typd in.
For example, if you go to hotmail.com and check your mails. Say your ID is [EMAIL="aaabbbccc@hotmail.com"]aaabbbccc @ hotmail . com[/EMAIL] and password is snoopy2. the keylogger software records your usename and password in its log file as
[URL="http://www.hotmail.comaaabbbccc @ hotmail . comsnoopy2"]www.hotmail.comaaabbbccc @ hotmail . comsnoopy2[/URL]
Risky isnt it???!!!
There's solution to this problem and you can easily fool the hacker.
The keylogger software sees and records everything, but it doesn't understand what it sees. It does not know what to do with keys that are typed anywhere other than the password or user name fields.
So, between successive keys of the password if you enter random keys, the keylogger software wont ever come to konw where you typed in what..
In the process of recording the keys, the string that the keylogger receives will contain the password, but embedded in so much random junk that discovering it is infeasible.
So...
1.Go to hotmail.com or yahoo.com or any of the site where you need to insert a password or PIN.
2.Type in your user ID.
3. Type in the first characterof the password.
4. Click on the address bar in the internet explorer or Firefox. Type in some 3/4 random charachters.
5. Again go to password field and type in the second character of the password.And probably third too.
6. Again go to the addressbar and type in a few mroe random character.
7. Back to the password field and the next characters of the password.
Keep on repeating the process till you type in the full password in the password field.
Instead of the password
snoopy2 the keylogger now gets:
hotmail.comspqmlainsdgsosdgfsodgfdpuouuyhdg2
Here a total of 26 random characters have been inserted among the 7 characters of the actual password!!!
No doubt it takes a little bit of more time than the usual process, but you're safe and secure that way!!!
Re: Protect your password in cyber cafe and on public computers
That is indeed a good tip. Other common thing to remember is never ever let the browser/site remember your password. (Never check that checkbox which says "remember me in this computer").
One should be extremely careful while using a public PC. Just getting our e-mail logins might not hurt us much. But, losing credit card numbers this way might lead to disaster.
-Kalayama
