Consider this:

You should never, *ever* log into your bank or other financial institution on a public access computer. You should never, *ever* type in your credit card information on a public access computer.

Always assume that any public computer is loaded with spyware and viruses, placed there either accidentally by someone downloading something or deliberately by a hacker that visited before you. More than likely you will be right. I can't claim to know the percentages but I've seen enough hacked machines to know it's high (more than 10%).

This means that everything you type - passwords, credit card numbers, etc - is likely being sent to someone with malicious intent.

Be wary when you put your memory card with photos in a strange computer! This is often how the viruses spread. It happened to my riding buddy (Nir) a couple weeks ago - you insert your memory card, the virus already present on the computer installs itself to the card. When you insert the card on another computer, the autorun then infects the new computer.

Many memory cards have a "write protect" feature enabled. You *must* turn this on before putting it in a public computer. If your card doesn't have this feature, you're basically having the informational equivalent of unprotected sex with a Kenyan prostitute.

Not surprisingly, I recommend traveling with a laptop. I won't even type in my email password on a strange computer.

Jeff

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How I Nearly Killed My Friends In Baja

One more thing. Do you use the same password for your online financial institutions as you do for gmail, etc? GO CHANGE IT NOW (the bank pws).

Hackers build up lists of known username/password combinations, and they have scripts that try these known combinations against financial institutions.

You will not enjoy suddenly finding, in the middle of the trip, that your entire bank account balance has been wired to Russia

Jeff

__________________
SF to Panama and back
How I Nearly Killed My Friends In Baja

I may be showing my ignorance here but are you not opening yourself up to all of these problems by plugging your laptop into someone elses network?

I assume when I plug into the hotel ethernet connection that I am going through there network to the internet so am I vulnerable at that point.

Is the antivirus protection on the average laptop up to dealing with this risk?

Ignorance is bliss so I still take a pad of paper and a pen however I can see that times realy are changing.

Rick

That has nothing to do with any antivirus protection and everything with ssl encryption. Not to dig to deep into the technical obscure stuff, but in essence with ssl (and that's what financial institutions in general use) even the switches (or computers or satelites or whatever) that transport the data for you can't know what's in the packages they transport.

Essentially it's like a tunnel from your computer to your bank.

If you want to know more this is actually a pretty good introduction: SSL Encryption Explained

See ya on the road!

P.S.: Of course ssl won't be of any use if you manage to get your laptop infected. But then again, you do have a decent and up to date virus protection, do you?

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I have a macbook computer I am debating bringing. I don't have much in the way of virus protection on it right now. I am also not the most computer literate person. I guess I better learn a bit more about the amount of virus protection needed/recommended for macs.
I plan on leaving on tuesday/wednesday next week weather dependent.
Thanks for the advice on lap tops!

Do many people use on line banking while travelling through central/south america??


Thanks
again
Matt

If your Mac runs OSX and you keep it updated you should be pretty much fine, not many Mac Viruses around and the Windows buggies won't spread to your exotic operating system.

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My Eee is running linux. Is this safe like a Mac by not being MS or do I need plenty of Protection? I've used it online with just what came pre-installed with it.

No, not exactly - you open yourself up to a different set of problems but they are less likely to result in your bank account balance being wired to Russia, especially if you keep your computer updated.

Public access computers easily become infected with malware because they are used by so many different people. Common vectors:

* A user inadvertently downloads an infected piece of software.
* A user inserts a camera memory card which contains a virus. The virus probably came from having earlier inserted it in an infected machine elsewhere.
* A malicious traveler deliberately installs spyware.
* A malicious internet cafe owner (or employee) deliberately installs spyware.

There are steps that internet cafe owners can take to try to secure their computers against the first two vectors, but my observation is that very few do. A *lot* of computers out there are infected.

In contrast, when you plug your personal computer into a network, there are really only two ways for malicious software to be installed:

* You accidentally do so by downloading and running a bad piece of software.
* A remote piece of software must "hack" into your computer through a vulnerability in the network software running on your computer.

#1 is easily prevented by simply not downloading software or by using virus scanning software.

#2 is not easy if your computer is up-to-date. When new vulnerabilities are discovered, Microsoft, Apple, Red Hat, Ubuntu, etc are usually pretty quick to produce a fix. As long as you keep running Windows Update regularly you should have a reasonably secure system.

BTW, if you never run Windows Update, your machine is probably already p0wned, even if you just have it plugged in at home. There are hundreds of widely known vulnerabilities in a new, unpatched installation of Windows (any flavor) and there are millions of already-infected computers automatically scanning the internet for fresh victims. Not long ago I recall reading a study which found that the average amount of elapsed time between plugging a brand-new (unpatched) Windows box into the network and it being successfully hacked is about four minutes.

Running Linux or MacOS doesn't give you immunity from this problem - you still need to run the software updater. Both have known vulnerabilities which have been fixed in updates.

There is one other issue you might be concerned about: Can someone on the network eavesdrop on my network connection, even if I am using my own computer? As buebo pointed out, not if you are visiting a website that uses SSL encryption. All banks do. Gmail will if you select it in your preferences (by default it doesn't). Even facebook uses SSL for the password exchange. The bottom line is that this is not a huge worry these days.

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SF to Panama and back
How I Nearly Killed My Friends In Baja

I always have mine. The benefits of convenience are just too great. Keep it secure, store it so its not jostling around as you ride, and your good to go. Communication and info at your fingertips where ever you are. no need to have to find a cafe at the end of a long day or worry about using public computers, mexican keyboards, etc.
IMHO, it's a no-brainer. Take it!