Keep 'em separated - surfing and online banking computers
Wednesday, June 9th 2010 @ 7:10 AM (not yet rated)
I've written about this before, but I sense the focus of much discussion in the next year or so will be the risks of doing banking online - both for business and personal purposes. The growth in online banking fraud is still increasing, due in large part to malicious software infections from web surfing that later capture your user names, account numbers and passwords during online banking logins. Brian Krebs has raised another good point about separating web browsing from online banking activities, and has generated a lot of comments on his blog from people who have strong opinions about what kind of computers are safest for online banking - a point that seems somewhat irrelevant to me.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/06/using-windows-for-a-day-cost-mac-user-100000/
The underlying problem is that doing risky things like surfing the web on the same computer as you use for online banking can more frequently result in being a victim of fraud. If the Streetwise Security Zone provides you no other value that this, it could you thousands of dollars!
Just a reminder of a more detailed article I published a few months ago on this topic, called "Stop, Drop and Roll":
http://www.streetwise-security-zone.com/members/streetwise/blog/VIEW/00000011/00000120/Todays-STOP- DROP-and-ROLL-to-avoid-being-the-victim-of-banking-fraud.html
Using two different computers for surfing and for online banking may seem extreme, but the occurrences of fraud are becoming so common, and the cost of a dedicated computer is getting so low, it is starting to sound like a reasonble idea - especially if you have large account balances or credit limits.
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