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How safe is it to run portable apps on public computers?

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jdd:
I will be traveling without my laptop and was planning to bring a USB drive with portable apps including Firefox and a VPN client. 

If I run these applications from my USB drive in a public computer in a lobby or Internet cafe, will it leave traces of personal information that I use to log into accounts on Firefox (e.g., gmail other web mail, or OWA)?   I also was thinking of connecting by VPN to my employers servers.  How safe is all this???

Thanks,
jdd
 

wraith808:
It really depends on how you set things up.  If you're using truly portable applications, the only things that are used on the host machine should be the processor and the memory.  Of course, this also depends on the computer not being compromised before you start using it- keyloggers are still an issue, and I'm not sure how you defend against such a thing.

f0dder:
...and ontop of keyloggers, there's the risk of getting your usb drive infected by malware from an infected public computer.

mouser:
f0dder beat me to the punch regarding worrying about usb drive being infected. it's still doable you just have to be careful of it -- i wonder if anyone has written up some tricks and techniques for safely doing such things.

jdd:
This may sound ridiculous but what is the danger due to infection of a usb drive by malware?  Would that affect my use of portable Firefox? 

To be safe, I could just throw out the $4.99 USB drive when I get home, rather than connect it to my computer. 

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