It is a beautiful day in Montréal and you find yourself and Charlie eating breakfast in a café on St. Denis. Charlie picked this place because it was a WiFi-Hotspot (a place where you can connect to the internet if you have a device that can transmit and receive wireless signals using WIFI).
However, the tranquility of the day is disturbed by a minor dispute that you and Charlie are having.
"But Charlie I can't believe you did that well on your XYZ funds"
"Karl you always doubt me. Here I will logon to my trading account at Bank of Ottawa and show you"
"Charlie it is not important. I believe you. Besides it is not safe to access your accounts here"
And there it was the annoying look of tech superiority that Charlie gave when it came to his computer knowledge.
"Karl you are timid. Trust me I know what I am doing"
You (Karl) were right. When you surf in public you cannot guarantee that the network you are connected to is secure. This goes for wireless or for wired connections. The only place you can guarantee security is in your own home.
Best practice is to not access private data or do financial transactions on a public computer or while surfing in public with your own computer.
If you are using a public computer like in a library you should also think about erasing stored data that the browser collects (like cookies or your surfing history). Below are steps in which you can erase "Private Data"
Internet Explorer
1. Click "Tools/Options"
2. Click "Delete Cookies" button
3. Click "Clear History" button
4. Click "Delete Files" button. A pop up window will appear. Checkmark "Delete all offline content" and click the "Ok" button
Firefox/Opera
1. Click "Tools/Clear(Delete) Private Data"
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