Protect Your PC on the Road

Russell Vines

Staying connected while on the road is essential for many travelers, business or otherwise.

However, it's hard to hold on to the good life when you pick up a computer virus on your journey.

Using a computer at the airport, in coffee shops, hotels or other public places can complicate your life, not save it, if unprotected wireless computing gets you or your business in hot water.

Travelers are especially ripe targets for computer bugs, as they hop from unprotected networks around the country or overseas.

Email, Email Everywhere

In this multitasking world, we don't always have the luxury of avoiding the office when traveling for business or pleasure. And if you're pounding the pavement for your company, staying connected is most likely a requirement of your job. Wireless web-connected devices -- laptops, Palm pilots, BlackBerrys, PocketPCs and cell phones -- are ubiquitous, giving us no excuse not be connected.

And that number is going to increase. Internet guru and Google (GOOG) vice president Vint Cerf says the pervasiveness of Web-enabled devices will triple the number of worldwide Internet users from one billion to three billion by 2010.

The locations that offer Internet access is growing at a great pace as well. In addition to a business center, many hotels now offer in-room wired or wireless Internet service, often for free. Many coffee shops now have Internet access, and conference floors now frequently offer wireless access to conventioneers.

The problem is you can't count on these businesses to employ the latest security technology to protect your surfing.

Protect Yourself

Fortunately, there are some basic steps that travelers can follow to guarantee that their trips for business or pleasure will not include souvenirs like viruses, spyware or keyloggers.

First, if traveling for business, find out your company's policy for computing on the road. Many organizations have defined guidelines of how to handle data while traveling.

For example, the basic rules for using email on the road are the same as in the office: Don't open unexpected email attachments from strangers.

The reasoning is sound: Some viruses can send you email pretending to be from someone you know ("spoofing"), or email that may even look like it came from you.

And don't open any attachments you're not expecting, even if it's labeled "I love you."

After that, there are several steps you should take to prepare your laptop for life on the road:

• Disable file and printer sharing on your PC. You might use this to share files at home, but unless you specifically need to do this with someone on the road, shut this off. It's fairly easy to execute, and your operating system's help screen can guide you.
• Cover or disable the Infrared Port on your laptop. It's handy when syncing your Palm, but it's possible to use the IR port to browse someone else's files from across a conference-room table without them knowing it.
• If your computer uses a guest account, be sure to disable it too. A lot of ugly bugs can come in through this account. You can find this under "administrative tools"-"computer management" or "users and groups." You can tell it's disabled when the small user icon has a red X on it.
• Keep your operating system up to date with the critical patches released by the vendor. Most systems have the ability to automatically update from the Web.
• Be sure your laptop is loaded with the latest security software. The three most important ones are virus scanners, software firewalls and spyware scanners. And keep the files current by frequently running the update procedure. A lot of this software is very inexpensive, and in some cases, like Ad-Aware personal SE free, so you don't have any excuse not to use it.
• If you're using a Bluetooth-enabled device, disable discovery mode. Bluetooth PDAs are vulnerable to bluejacking, which exploits discover mode to drop viruses that access your contact addresses and phone numbers.

If it's absolutely necessary to conduct transactions over a public wireless hotspot that includes your account or password information, remember that unless it's encrypted, any data that leaves your computer can be read by anyone else.

Be sure to look for the locked padlock icon on your browser (often in the lower right-hand corner) that shows that you're using an SSL (secure-sockets layer)-encrypted session. You can also check that the Web site is using a secure server by looking at the URL; a secure server has "https://" in its address, rather than the usual "http://."

Employ great care if you're using a PC that's not your own, such as a shared computer in a hotel business center or on a conference floor -- you don't know what kind of security software has been installed on the computer, so don't assume your session will be private.

Some hackers install keylogging software on shared computers to record and distribute personal-account information, so never use a public computer for something like personal banking.

A good idea is to always clear your browser cache and cookies before logging off. If Internet Explorer is your browser, do this by selecting "tools"-"Internet options" and clicking "delete cookies," "delete files" and "clear history." Or check your browser's "help" menu for the commands.

It's nearly impossible to make a computer invulnerable to well-financed, dedicated hackers, but why make it easy for them? A few simple steps will help insure you're helping to protect yourself.

Your final task to ensure a safe computer? Find a vacation spot that doesn't have Internet access.

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