General Internet Tips for Internet Cafés & beyond

Email that is sent in plain text, or unencrypted, across the Internet can be read by many different parties if they make the effort to do so. One of these may be your local Internet Service Provider (ISP) or any ISP through which your email passes. An email travels through many computers to get from the sender to the receiver; it ignores geopolitical boundaries and may pass through another country s servers even if you are sending email between two points in the same country. Below are some general tips that are commonly misunderstood by Internet users.

• Password-protecting a file does so little to protect the file, that it is not worth ever doing for documents containing sensitive information. It only provides a false sense of security.
• ZIPing a file does not protect it from anyone wanting to see what is inside the file
• If you want to make sure a file/email is sent securely, use encryption.
• If you want to send email or a document securely, you need to use encryption all the way to the final recipient. It is not good enough to send an encrypted email from a field office to the New York/London/any office and then have that same email sent unencrypted to another person.
• The Internet is global in nature. There is no difference between sending email from my office in Manhattan to your office in Manhattan and sending email from an internet café in South Africa to a London office computer.
• When should you use encryption? As often as possible! Even if the email or data you are sending in not sensitive.
• To the best of your ability, make sure the computer you are using has virus protection software. Many viruses are written in order to extract information from your computer, whether it be your hard drive contents or you email files, including email address book.
• Make sure the software you are using is properly licensed. You are a potential target for abuse by the authorities if you are using unlicensed software. You instantly become a software pirate instead of a human rights activist in the eyes of governments and media. Best option: use open source software  it s free!
• There is no 100% secure solution if you are using the Internet. Be aware that a person can socially hack  into a system, by pretending to be someone they aren t on the phone or by email. Use common sense judgement.
• Encourge your colleagues and friends to use encryption technology  the more people who use it, the less obvious it appears to those looking for it. Share your knowledge far and wide. Photocopy and pass along this flyer!