In order to help patrons understand our computer policies, we have compiled information about computer security and the types of behaviors that put you at risk.
Never leave a public computer while you are logged in. If you allow someone else to use the end of your session, they can click the back button in Firefox or Internet Explorer and see the pages you viewed, and possibly, information you entered earlier. Also, always close the Internet browser before you log out to avoid letting strangers "recover" your browsing sessions.
The following applies to any programs that produce a computer file users would save to a disk or flash drive, email or submit from a webpage, or print:
Most programs will try to make your documents and information recoverable in case of power outages and other accidents. This is a good thing; but it means that just switching the computer off or logging out may not be enough to erase your information when you leave. We recommend that our users individually close all programs they have used and answer all "Are you sure?" questions before logging out. This tells the computer that you are indeed finished with what you were doing and all recoverable copies can be dropped from memory. If you cannot do this because your session expired before you were ready and the information is sensitive or personal, see a librarian immediately.
Email is restricted to adults or minors with adult supervision in the library for a number of important reasons:
Phishing is a criminal activity that many people are exposed to through their email. The victim is tricked into revealing passwords, account numbers or a social security number by a seemingly legitimate communication from a trusted company or organization. An example of phishing follows and more information can be found at http://www.antiphishing.org It is very easy to copy your bank's logo directly from its website and insert it into fraudulent email. The link in the email goes to a fake site that requests you to login with your password.
Spam is always a problem when you indescriminately register for access to sites on the Internet using your email address. You will most certainly begin receiving dozens of unwanted messages trying to scam you or sell you mortgages, get-rich-quick schemes, pharmeceuticals, etc. Sometimes there is no way to stop them and you may be forced to abandon your email account. Consider setting up a separate email address to use for registrations, just in case this happens. That way, your personal email from friends and relatives can remain unaffected.
Valuable sites such as MySpace and Facebook have to be blocked at the library because they use more bandwidth that we can provide. In addition to this problem, we recommend that our patrons be extremely careful about social networking. We caution you not to publish personal information such as photos, address, phone numbers, school name, work place, etc. There are criminals who use the Internet, particularly social networking sites, to contact potential victims and it is almost impossible to know if the person you socialize with is really who they claim to be. It is important to mention that these sites are not encouraging dangerous behavior; but they are also a very public venue - like setting up an Information About Me table at the airport!
Commercial sites will trigger an orange and white warning screen on the library’s public computers. These sites are completely blocked with a red stop sign in the Children's Department.
Not all businesses on the Internet are careful about security and some are downright bogus. For this reason the library does not recommend making credit card purchases on public computers. If you must, you can override the warning. Please make sure that you are familiar with the company. Check to make sure their check out pages use a secure server by looking for the lock symbol in the bottom right border fo the screen. When you are finished, please close the Firefox or Internet Explorer browser window before you log out.