David's Blog

Q: Is it Safe to bank online?

A: NO(MSNBC)

Seriously, If you think its safe to bank online you are wrong. You know that tense feeling you have when you walk out of a bank, or away from an ATM, after making a withdrawal? Those arachnid warning sensors of yours should be tingling every time you type your online banks (OB) URL into a web browser. Criminals around the globe are trying to get into your bank account, and they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves; phishing emails and links, malware on your PC, and the old fashioned ‘looking over the shoulder’ method are some of the most common ways crooks get to your money.

Q: So just don’t use online banks, right?

A: NO(WSJ)

There is risk in online banking, but of course you could get robbed outside of any bank, and there are also a lot of benefits. Lets toast to my favorite: the environment, closely followed by better intrest rates (in some cases… do your research) The key is to use sound practice to minimize your risk, while maximizing your benifits.

Q: Can I safely bank online?

A: There is risk involved, those risks can be easily minimized.

The real question here is how at risk or how much will you loose? For the average person that risk can be minimized in a few easy steps.

1. DO NOT EVER (that means NEVER) use a public computer to access your OB.
2. DO NOT EVER (NEVER) access your OB via an unsecured WIFI spot.
3. Keep your Antivirus Up-to-date.
4. Change your Password, make it Random, Use a variety of characters.
5. Understand how Phishing Scams work, and dont get scammed.

If you think your at a higher risk level, consider a few more steps that I highly recomend:

1. Don’t access your OB through IE(any number) (thats internet explorer)
2. Access your OB through a different browser than the one you use regularly.
3. Count your online currency in privacy.

If you really want to be secure (I do this) get/burn a liveCD of your favorite linux flavor and use it to access your online bank.

None of this will work if you fail to use the most important tool of them all: your brain.

Q: Is it Safe to bank online?

A: NO(MSNBC)

Seriously, If you think its safe to bank online you are wrong. You know that tense feeling you have when you walk out of a bank, or away from an ATM, after making a withdrawal? Those arachnid warning sensors of yours should be tingling every time you type your online banks (OB) URL into a web browser. Criminals around the globe are trying to get into your bank account, and they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves; phishing emails and links, malware on your PC, and the old fashioned ‘looking over the shoulder’ method are some of the most common ways crooks get to your money.

Q: So just don’t use online banks, right?

A: NO(WSJ)

There is risk in online banking, but of course you could get robbed outside of any bank, and there are also a lot of benefits. Lets toast to my favorite: the environment, closely followed by better intrest rates (in some cases… do your research) The key is to use sound practice to minimize your risk, while maximizing your benifits.

Q: Can I safely bank online?

A: There is risk involved, those risks can be easily minimized.

The real question here is how at risk or how much will you loose? For the average person that risk can be minimized in a few easy steps.

1. DO NOT EVER (that means NEVER) use a public computer to access your OB.
2. DO NOT EVER (NEVER) access your OB via an unsecured WIFI spot.
3. Keep your Antivirus Up-to-date.
4. Change your Password, make it Random, Use a variety of characters.
5. Understand how Phishing Scams work, and dont get scammed.

If you think your at a higher risk level, consider a few more steps that I highly recomend:

1. Don’t access your OB through IE(any number) (thats internet explorer)
2. Access your OB through a different browser than the one you use regularly.
3. Count your online currency in privacy.

If you really want to be secure (I do this) get/burn a liveCD of your favorite linux flavor and use it to access your online bank.

None of this will work if you fail to use the most important tool of them all: your brain.

My Friends computer has died, the harddrive isn’t working anymore.
I took my 2GB thumbdrive with Eeebuntu and booted the OS directly from the drive.

Every part of the computer works, save the harddrive. These machines are like cars, after a certain age, they just start falling apart. So I recomended he purchase a new PC first, then a new harddrive, for his old PC.

Of course we are college students, so the funds may take a while to come around, and in the mean time… He will be running the entire computer off of two thumbdrives. one for the OS, the second for storage.

Im surprised it works as well as it does, but for the time being, he has a working PC.