Erasing Your Tracks
As essential it is becoming to preserve our online anonymity, erasing your online tracks is just as important. To clarify; online tracks consist of your browsing history, stored cookies, stored passwords, AutoComplete, and internet cache. “But why must I erase my online tracks?” you ask. Well, it’s quite simple. In the case that anyone obtains access to your computer, whether they’re a guest in your home or they stole your laptop from the trunk of your car, your online tracks allow others to gather a lot of information. For example, AutoComplete might store your account usernames and passwords or all previous Google and MSN searches you’ve conducted; your history might reveal which online banking sites you’ve recently visited (therefore revealing who you bank with); and your cookies reveal which sites you’ve visited and when you visited them. In the unfortunate case that your PC is accessed without your consent and you have reluctantly refused to erase your online tracks, it is very possible for someone to gain unauthorized access to your online accounts or retrieve a documented list of the websites you’ve recently visited. Online tracks are just as big a risk to our online privacy and anonymity as hackers and spyware.
There are also know types of spyware, much like the infamous TSADBOT, which have been know to access one’s browser history and cache. If malicious software is able to gain access to the data stored in AutoComplete forms or your browser history and send that information to a remote location, the results could be extremely detrimental.
In the Screen Cast section of this article, I am going to demonstrate how to use CCleaner to erase our online tracks and alleviate any associated security risks that might arise by refusing to erase your tracks.
Public Computers
Public computers are an online privacy and anonymity junkie’s worst nightmare. As browsing applications automatically generate a list of recently typed URLs, and the cookies and temporary cache files stored on the computer are accessible simply by entering the browser’s internet properties, any single browsing mistake could end up being extremely devastating. For example, let’s say that you logged into your GMail account on a public computer. After checking your mail, you close the browser and walk away. Well, if by habit you instructed the browser to “remember” you, the next time someone visits the GMail webpage they will be automatically logged into your account. If that’s not scary enough, what if you did the same thing with your online banking account? Also, consider this situation. The person who used the public computer before you is an identity thief and is looking for his next victim. Secretly, he installs a key logging program onto the computer and anything you type in, including user names and passwords, will be recorded and automatically sent to the identity thief’s inbox. He’d now have complete access to any of the accounts you logged into while using the public computer.
It’s easier just to eliminate the possibility of making a mistake in the first place. While using public computers, refrain from logging into personal accounts.
Proxies
Proxy servers are servers that are situated between your computer and the web server you are trying to access. When using a proxy server, your web page requests are first sent to the proxy, evaluated and processed, and then sent to the web server. Proxies have a multitude of purposes, such as setting up site and content restrictions. But, most notably, proxies are used to mask the identity of one’s computer. When you access a web server directly, your IP address may be logged, allowing them to know who is accessing the content on their site. By using a proxy, your IP is masked by that of the proxy and thus, the final web server is unsure of who is actually accessing their site. These types of proxies are often referred to as anonymizing proxies. On top of preserving one’s online anonymity, schools and businesses have begun using proxies as another layer of defence by setting them up like firewalls.
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