Playing Safe - The Internet & Your Money

Fears
There has always been this worry that the Internet is insecure and vulnerable to all those nasty people who wish to deprive you of your hard earned (unless your a City banker) cash.
The trouble is that most of this vulnerability is down to you or your computer.

Why
Your computer, whichever operating system you are using, tries to be helpful.   It asks if you want it to save your passwords, your account details, any personal information etc. etc..   It is all very nice but really just encourages you into bad habits.    All it requires is a virus, worm, trojan, botnet or keylogger to have been installed on your machine and you are in serious problems.   For those of you running Macs or Linux machines should realise that you too are not invunerable, botnets and keyloggers can easily find a way onto your machine.   So called phishing sites are also a serious risk but I really hope you look at any site or email with a considerable amount of sceptiscism.   No Bank or Business will email you asking for your financial details, the only time you give them access is when you are using them on a site you know you can trust.

First Steps
Do not use the same password.   If you have a password to log into your computer then this is easily hacked - heck I cn do it.   Use different passwords for different sites and make them complicated.  I can hear you say "bit I will never remember them", do you remember the days before computers there were things called pen and paper, write them down and keep them safe from spying eyes and burglars.   If you have a small notebook then associate 1 page per site, why?  So you can change the password regularly.   It's a pain I know but the more difficult you make an intruders life then the less likely they are to even try.   Before I forget, please don't give anyone your password, don't save it on your machine and please remember what you did with your notebook.


Typical Passwords
Any site that has your personal information on should be protected with a good, solid and complicated password.   Dictionary words are definitely a  no-no, names are even worse.  You can of course muddle them up a bit, for instance if your password was "abigail" you could make it "aB1g@1L777".   Not so easy to remember but if someone new your original password they may eventually crack it.   When it comes to monetary accounts then even these passwords are not good enough, an example may be "781&&#Rt6**%zZqi63£", ouch I here you say and believe me in the next chapter it is going to get worse.


Encryption
Most modern operating systems will allow you to encrypt a folder (directory) or partition, this will mean that if anyone does gain access to it then it will appear as gobbledy-gook and yes it requires you to enter a password to access it.   It is too much to try and cover this subject in a short blog for each operating system so either have a read of the forums, wikis, or manuals.   I know this is little help but I will try and cover it better at a later date.

Security Software
All operating systems have firewalls, some are better than others but they are your first line of defence.  Anti-virus software is a must on all computers including Linux and Macs if for no other reason than to stop the spread of malware to other computers   Even if you have paid a fortune for the latest security software never think you are invunerable so the best form of defence is common sense.   Use a web browser with anti-phishing, pop-up and ad blockers, (that is all the main browsers but please do not use Internet Explorer 6).   Don't open emails form unknown sources, avoid suspicious sites and be careful what links you click.


A Solution
Ok, so I have now made you paranoid, I have a solution, the live disk solution.   A live disk is an operating system that runs independently of your main computer.  It doesn't touch your hard drive unless you want it to.   They can even be installed onto a USB memory stick (another blog) and because they do not retain any information they can not be infected with malware, the down side is that they also do not retain your bookmarks or your usernames etc. so you have to know these, it also doesn't remember your passwords.   The best thing is that you can use them anywhere, if you go abroad, on someone elses' computer - you just have to know your details so keep your paper notebook safe!   To boot from a live disk put it in the optical drive of your machine and reboot.   Many machines will search for a CD before they boot into the hard drive but you may have to press a keyboard button, usually keep tapping the F12 or the escape key when your computer first whirrs into life (or worse still enter the BIOS and change the boot order which is usually the delete button or F1 or F2).   You may even see what key to press when the computer first sparks into life. The live disk will now start.  A wired connection to the internet is best for 2 reasons, wireless may not work and it makes remote keylogging far more difficult.

Where to Get Live Disks.
Ok these are Linux disks however all you are really going to be using it for is the Internet Browser (Normally Firefox) so just click on the Firefox icon and you are away usually with Google staring you in the face.

Linux Mint  A good all round system - easy to use
Mandriva One   Get the KDE version as it is the closest for you Windows users
Xubuntu   For low powered computers.

There are many more  but these are 3 of my favourites.  If you read each page they will tell you how to burn the disk and normally if you don't have the right burning software they will usually tell you some free applications for your operating system.    


If you haven't got a disk burning programme for windows here is one...
Infrarecorder.


Any questions then please let me know.