[JimmyO1]

Hi to all forum members,

My question today concerns the relative safety of using online banking. To be brief but succint, I did sign up for online banking about a year og or so and so ffar have had no pblems. This could be because I have so little in my account for theives to bother with. On the news however I constantly hear about people who have had horrific results from any number of online transactions they have engaged in from i.d. theft to losing everything. Does anyone out there have any reasons pro or con to talk a little about this?

[smax013]

JimmyO1 said:

Hi to all forum members,

My question today concerns the relative safety of using online banking. To be brief but succint, I did sign up for online banking about a year og or so and so ffar have had no pblems. This could be because I have so little in my account for theives to bother with. On the news however I constantly hear about people who have had horrific results from any number of online transactions they have engaged in from i.d. theft to losing everything. Does anyone out there have any reasons pro or con to talk a little about this?

The safety of online banking is more a function of whether you practice "safe computing". For example, do you select hard to figure out passwords with lots of different numbers and letters with different capitalization...or do you use your dog's or kid's name as the password? Do you click on links in email messages, even if you do not really know who sent you that message? Do you connect to your online banking account through a wireless connection? Do you run anti-virus and keep it up to date...and run anti-malware and anti-spyware scans? Do you install the OS and other programs' updates, many of which address security issues? Is your computer behind a firewall of some sort? Do other people have direct access your user account/your computer?

The point is that security of online banking, just like traditional banking, it more a function of what you do and how you live your life. If you practice "safe computing" but throw away your physical banking slips with your account number on it from when you went to the bank to deposit your money without shreading it or tearing up into tiny pieces, then it could be likely that you online banking is more secure than your "traditional" banking.

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi :

To supplement what smax has shared, my impressions, which could be incorrect, is

that the vast majority of people who engage in Online banking are NOT very knowledgeable

concerning the best security programs to protect them . I would guess that the vast majority

use programs like AVG, Norton, or McAfee and know little about antiSPYWARE/antiTROJAN

programs, even very good and FREE Ones, like Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and

"SUPERAntiSpyware" . I am relatively knowledgeable about computer security AND I still

do NOT do "Online Banking" .