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Old 25 May 2017, 08:10 AM   #15
jhollington
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 371
Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
Not quite sure what you mean above. If I shut down my computer I am logged out of most things by default. Only a few sites like Gmail offer me the option of staying logged in. If I don't select that option, won't I be logged out if I close the browser and turn off the computer? I typically do that with a laptop before I move anywhere. On laptops just be sure to select to have to log in for each session (at least when traveling).
Actually, with the exception of obvious things like online banking services, a lot of sites do offer you the option of staying logged in, and far too many of them use an "opt-out" checkbox, such as "This is a public computer" so it's definitely something you have to be cautious about in many cases.

That said, they are getting better in this regard... I'm seeing more sites use something like, "Keep me logged in" as the option, rather than "This is a public computer" but it all depends on what services you use, and as you point out, Google is pretty pervasive at wanting to keep you logged in across all of its services.

You'd also be surprised at what's left laying around in your browser cache, even after you've explicitly logged out of a webmail service. I've been involved in forensic investigations and gleaned quite a bit merely from leftover cached data from people's Hotmail and Gmail accounts, even when there wasn't a single valid cookie to be found anywhere.

It's not an insurmountable problem, but people definitely have to be cautious and aware of this sort of thing. If you're only concerned about border crossing scenarios, than it's easy enough to reset your browser, flushing all caches, cookies, and even history before your travel, but if you're concerned simply about your laptop being stolen, there's going to be a good chance that most people aren't that much on their guard one hundred percent of the time.

However, while border inspections are becoming more of an issue, I honestly don't think that pure "theft resistance" is a serious concern when it comes to data anyway — at least not to the extent of it mattering which e-mail strategy you use. In this day and age, I wouldn't use a system without whole disk encryption anyway, and in all probability, somebody stealing my laptop or mobile device is after the hardware, and not my data. Even the most basic encryption will dissuade any casual attempts at snooping, since they're more likely just interested in selling off the stolen device anyway.
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