Connect to the internet securely

I'm am not sure there is a way you can protect an internet café computer as a user. Rather the owner of the computer must put a security tool in measure.

You have no control over that PC except the owner.

I apologize for not been clear but my friend is trying to protect his computers at home before connecting to the internet so this hacker will not get in. Every time they connect from the house their accounts are compromise and they have seen the mouse moving by it self and trying to download programs.

Encrypting his connection will not guarantee that the attacks stop. Its not clear where the attacks came from and without that is hard to tell what to do to stop them.

First, why do he thinks that the home computer is compromised? Is there any sign that the computer itself was compromised? What did he do to protect it? Did a fresh install, used a good antivirus/firewall (Windows defender is fine), updated everything?

Encrypting the connection would only protect him from someone that controls the network that he is acessing. In a private home, that could be the internet service provider, or if the link is shared, someone that is also using it. If there is a wireless access point, securing it with a WPA2 setting with a good password would help. Does not look like the most probable attack vector in such case, but you can encrypt traffic to some sites, and thats the case of facebook and yahoo, by asking them to use secure (https) connections. On facebook this is in your settings, under security options. I would also recommend checking the other options on facebook settings, and enabling things like login notifications and login approvals. You can even check active facebook sessions on that page, and maybe identify where the attacker logged in from.

Also important is to choose good passwords to the accounts that are hacked. Dictionary attacks can easily find out weak passwords. And also not to repeat the passwords on different accounts.

The computers have been reformat and re-install but this guy gets in some how. I was thinking about UBUNTU running from a cd so they can browse the internet then once they are done they just eject the cd. Do  you think that is the best way to do it?

Yes that can work, but it might be slow. They can install Ubuntu on a USB stick as well.

It seems whatever malware is installed persists even after reinstall, or backup files carry infection towards new installs.

In any case, to securely connect through the internet:

1. Use ssh tunneling to an ssh box, and use a dynamic tunnel in the connection. Then configure browser to use dynamic port as a Sock5 proxy.

2. Use a VPN client to connect remotely to anothjer network, and configure your browser to pass data through the proxy.

Hope your this helps.

Jfer

Can you please explain a little bit more about #1.

Thanks for your suggestions