I am a frequent traveller and often use public computers to check emails, occasionally also making airline and/or hotel bookings using my credit card. I understand there is an inherent risk using my credit card on a public computer and accept this risk, although I never logon to my bank or share trading accounts. On the Microsoft website I noticed that one recommended precaution when using public computers is to download the “X-Cleaner anti spyware” freeware program to a floppy disk and run the program on the computer before entering any sensitive data. This seems like a sound idea but I have not been able to find this program on the web. Do you know where I can locate X-Cleaner, or a similar program, and how do you rate the effectiveness of this recommendation?

It is rare that Microsoft would recommend a third-party product, particularly when we are concerned with a security related product, and I fear that X-Cleaner Anti-Spyware is no exception. While I have never used this product, I have been unable to find a Microsoft recommendation for this software. Additionally, the software itself does not appear to be free. Nevertheless, looking at the website for the manufacturer (www.xblock.com) they state that “XBlock no longer supports or maintains the X-Cleaner product. If you are a current X-Cleaner user you should have received an email notifying you of this change, and offering you a free year’s subscription to Sunbelt Software’s VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware software for your desktop antivirus and antispyware security needs”. So it seems that the X-Cleaner software is quite old and no longer supported.

In any case, the reason that I doubt Microsoft would have recommended this product is because the advice provided, regarding running this software on a public computer before usage, does not make much sense. This is because most public computers would, most likely, not have a floppy drive to run the software from a floppy disk. Additionally, the actual computer (e.g. tower) component of most public computers are hidden away to specifically prevent users from using removable media of any kind, such as CDs or USBs, thus preventing you from loading any scanning software. In addition, to effectively use antivirus and anti-malware utilities you generally require administrator rights to the computer. Most public computers do not grant users administrator rights, but instead only limited user rights. This prevents users from changing system critical settings or installing/uninstalling programs. The antivirus and antimalware utilities require the administrator level of access, as often computer infections are in locations where system files reside and to edit or modify such locations (e.g. to remove the infected files) requires administrative access. A final argument against running such a scan on a public computer is that the scan will likely take quite a long time (perhaps over an hour) so it is not time effective.

Unfortunately there is no real foolproof way to protect your privacy when using a public computer. There is every likelihood that some malware (such as a keylogger) has been installed on the computer, transmitting your keystrokes (including credit card numbers, login details, etc) back to someone who then intends to use these details for malicious purposes. Be aware, some operators of public computers (such as internet cafes) are very good and maintain their machines well, taking all required precautions, but others are not so proactive. As a rule of thumb I never use a public computer to do anything except casual surfing which does not require me to enter any personal or sensitive information. An alternative is to carry a laptop computer when travelling.