Backpaking then; backpacking now

About ten years ago, I was backpacking in Australia. To communicate with friends and family, fortunately, there was Internet. But Internet was restricted to Internet cafes. Checking my emails at a local Internet cafe, when I could find one, exposed me to a lot of nasty risks: account hijack, keylogger attacks, financial account phishing scams, identity thefts, to name a few.

The farther away from civilization I was, the more expensive the browsing experience. I could easily pay 10$ for 30 minutes on the Web.

That was then.

Today wireless Internet (WI-FI) is everywhere. And best of all, it is often free: municipal libraries, hostels and even Starbucks offer free WI-FI.

That being said, using free WI-FI can be as hazardous as logging onto my email account back in the days. Free WI-FI makes it very easy for a smartass to sniff out information sent over the connection (passwords, banking account information, etc.). It can lead to disaster.

We want the goodies without the risks.

A backpacker serious about computer security should do the following if he wants to use a netbook on his trip:

1) Disable drive C sharing
2) Disable Windows XP firewall and use a standalone free firewall (Comodo firewall)
3)Disable all useless (or outright dangerous) Windows services, including the notorious "Universal Plug and "Pray""
4) Create a strong Windows password
5) Install anti-spyware software (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Emisoft Anti-Malware, Spywareblaster)
6) Update your free antivirus (Avast)
7) Encrypt your data (Cryptainer Le)
8) Install a Virtual Private Network (HotSpot shield)

The last two items are key to a successful defense against computer, financial or identity theft. We have need to carry a few documents that contain
sensitive information. Obviously, we want to protect ourselves against the risk that somebody steals our netbook and finds all this sensitive information.

So what I've done the following: create a folder buried deep in system32 windows folder; change all .doc filenames to .dll and encrypt the folder to make it invisible (the folder is also password-protected 256 bite SSL).

So John steals our netbook in Manilla. First he needs to crack Windows XP's password (doable). He looks in the folder "documents". He finds nothing. He searches the C drive by files (all .doc). He finds nothing. He goes into each and every folder on the C drive (takes him forever) and manages find a suspicious folder with...no files in it. He opens up Cryptainer Le and needs about 160 years to crack the strong 256 bite SSL password. Very unlikely he'll accomplish anything.

Now onto Hotspot Shield, the real gem. This software is a free Virtual Private Network. Basically, if we browse with this service activated, it works the same as our private network at home: the best defense in town. Free WI-FI suddenly tastes so much better!

No browsing is ever 100 % safe. But we are pretty damn close with this set-up.

Is there anything I forget?