Is safe online banking possible? sandbox?

Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Primary computer is win7 with firewall, AV,
firefox, noscript...etc...
I've never had a known malware infection.
But that pesky "known" negates everything.

I'm paranoid about online banking.
For that, I boot a live linux CD that never
goes anywhere but my bank.
It gives me a sense of security, but it's annoying.

I switched to Comodo internet security because it
has a one-click sandbox mode. My intention was
to run the browser in the sandbox for online banking.

But, after thinking about it, I concluded that the sandbox
could help me trap malware inside the sandbox, protecting
the primary OS while browsing risky sites.

If my computer already has malware, such as a keylogger,
the sandbox won't help me at all to prevent my
account info being logged and sent off to the hackers.
Yes? No?

Comodo sandbox has a virtual on-screen keyboard, but I'm not
sure that helps. The data has to be converted going out to
the bank. I'd be more trusting if the virtual keyboard
were part of the bank's website and no actual data could
be decoded on my end.

Is there anything I can do to keep my bank transactions
private in win7?

There's a product called SafeCentral that claims
to address the problem with "reverse sandboxing".
I have no idea if it really solves the problem.
And it costs $40. I can boot the live linux CD many times
for $40 worth of annoyance.

| Can you do safe online banking in win7?
|

Networks cannot be made entirely safe. Why
do you need to do online banking?

On 4/8/2015 9:36 PM, Mayayana wrote:
| Can you do safe online banking in win7?
|

Networks cannot be made entirely safe. Why
do you need to do online banking?



Online banking is all I do. My check gets automatically deposited. My
bills get automatically paid. I haven't carried real money or been
inside a bank in years. I log on twice a day. I move money from one
account to another regularly. I have a debit card account that has no
overdraft protection. If, somehow, someone gets access to it they may
temporarily have access to a very limited amount.

I use Kaspersky Safe Money if that even helps. Sure, Maybe I get
hacked. I can also get hit on the head or burgled and lose more than
money.

Banks do online banking, don't they?

mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Online banking is unsafe by virtue of it being online.
I do all my banking at the bank.

On Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:00:54 -0500, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Online banking is unsafe by virtue of it being online.
I do all my banking at the bank.

Same here!

Oh, wait, what year is this? The last time I went to a bank to do my banking
was approximately 1984. ;-)

--

Char Jackson

Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:00:54 -0500, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Online banking is unsafe by virtue of it being online.
I do all my banking at the bank.

Same here!

Oh, wait, what year is this? The last time I went to a bank to do my banking
was approximately 1984. ;-)

Yah, I don't actually go to the bank unless necessary. I don't do
online banking though. The monthly statement in the US mail is good
enough for me.

Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:00:54 -0500, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Online banking is unsafe by virtue of it being online.
I do all my banking at the bank.

Same here!

Oh, wait, what year is this? The last time I went to a bank to do my banking
was approximately 1984. ;-)


I think that was the last time for Mr. Smith, Julia, O'Brien and Mr.
Charrington too.

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On 04/09/2015 08:20 AM, mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?
[cut]
I'm paranoid about online banking.
For that, I boot a live linux CD that never
goes anywhere but my bank.
It gives me a sense of security, but it's annoying.
Give Tails a try
https://tails.boum.org/
Install it either on an USB stick or on your HDD (dual-boot)
[cut]

Paul in Houston TX wrote:
mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Online banking is unsafe by virtue of it being online.
I do all my banking at the bank.


I fondly remember when the bank teller told me
about their "new online banking option".

And how it was protected with a *three digit pin*.
That was their password scheme at the time.

I don't have a very good poker face, and I hope
I didn't "scowl" at the teller in too obvious
a fashion :-)

As you might guess from that, I wouldn't
be caught dead doing online banking.

Your web browser traffic is only covered by
SSL/TLS, which turns out to be not much
protection at all. At the very least, don't
do your online banking through that proxy
you've been using to trick Netflix. If you're
going to do online banking, it should be
only within the presence of a "normal"
internet session (where only ISP staff could
do a MITM attack on the "secure" connection).
Not through a web proxy or anonymizer where
such an MITM attack could be carried out.

Good times,
Paul

On 09/04/2015 2:20 am, mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

As safe as, or safer than, any other way, yes. Safer than wandering
through the streets to and from the bank carrying cash. Our paranoia is
often excessive - people go to enormous lengths to protect their bank
account details, and then write cheques (or used to) for people with all
their bank details printed on. The only thing that needs protecting is
your passwords. The transactions take place in an encrypted tunnel. If
you are widely known to be a multi-millionaire, you might (only might)
find someone lurking outside your house 24/7 with a van load of
equipment trying to hack into your calls. They are still extremely
unlikely to succeed. Are you a well-known multimillionaire? No? Then
forget the problem.

If my computer already has malware, such as a keylogger,
the sandbox won't help me at all to prevent my
account info being logged and sent off to the hackers.
Yes? No?

Typing in passwords is one area where there may be a real risk from
keyloggers. So, don't use the keyboard. Fill secure forms in with data
saved (encrypted) in RoboForm or LastPass and pasted in automatically.
Keyloggers wouldn't really work with my bank because you never type your
whole password. It requires a log-in. Mine is long and complicated - if
you are paranoid about burglars breaking in to your house and using your
computer don't tell it to remember your log-in). The Bank then requires
a random sequence of several characters from a password (mine is long
and complex). Even if anyone is listening in, it will take them a hell
of a long time to work out which letters are which even if they knew how
long the password was. In the almost impossible event of them doing so,
there is then another sequence of characters from a second PIN for them
to crack. Some banks require you to generate a pin from a separate
dongle gadget. Others recommend Rapport software, as extra protection (I
don't bother - it slows up the system and occasionally has bugs) Am I
painting the right picture? It is very, very safe.

Is your computer stealthed? If it is behind a NAT router correctly set
up, you are invisible to the internet, especially if you have a
dynamically allocated IP address. To test try Gibson Research:-

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

If you are stealthed and you don't let anything on to your system (good
antivirus, don't open attachments. etc) they can't find you anyway.

Others may give you advanced technical reasons why it online banking may
be unsafe - but what I'm saying is that the probability is very, very
low if you are sensible, and for all but the aforementioned millionaire
it isn't worth worrying about. You money is much more likely to be
nicked internally by a bank employee than a hacker.


--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

Facebook - a place where people spend all day telling you that they have
nothing to say.

On 04/08/2015 08:20 PM, mike wrote:
Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Primary computer is win7 with firewall, AV,
firefox, noscript...etc...
I've never had a known malware infection.
But that pesky "known" negates everything.



snip


First off, anyone who questions why you do on-line banking is about 25
years behind the time. I do 99% of my baning on-line. I perform so many
transactions that it would be insane to bank in person.


I switched to Linux as my full time OS years ago and one of the reasons
was for on-line banking. My wife however uses Win 7 and has not once,
had a problem.



Funny though, but I have had problems twice and in both instances it was
NOT a problem with the security on my computer.


In one instance my bank actually got hacked and though I ended up not
loosing money...the bank at first handled it rather poorly.


The other occurrence was in many ways my own stupidity for allowing a
company I did business with to store my credit card number...and they
got hacked. Again I did not lose any money, I simply was issued a new
card.(and make sure I don't inadvertently allow a vendor to store my
credit card number)

On Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:20:38 -0700, mike wrote:

Can you do safe online banking in win7?

No.
Use a dist like Tails, but be aware that even that has
mandatory government backdoors. In fact, it phones home as soon as it
connects. They say on the homepage that it "checks for updates", but
it can't be updated. Pretty lame. They were also forced to drop
TrueCrypt, and use a more NSA-friendly encryption scheme.
However, it would be immune to the average hacker.
Make sure you unplug your HD before using it the Tails CD.
Paranoid ? Me ?
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

philo wrote on 4/9/2015 5:28 AM:
The other occurrence was in many ways my own stupidity for allowing a company I did business with to store my credit
card number...and they got hacked. Again I did not lose any money, I simply was issued a new card.(and make sure I don't
inadvertently allow a vendor to store my credit card number)

I've always given thought to having a prepaid credit card, if that's the right term, where I can load it with 'x' number
of dollars and then do online purchases. This isn't banking I know, but in reply to your credit card issue, a prepaid
would prevent anyone from taking more than the $ on the card. If I gave it out to any sites/businesses, I'd just have
to keep track of any auto debits and schedule loading the card ahead of time.

This would at least keep the credit card issues outta my hair. Maybe?

Per mike:
Is there anything I can do to keep my bank transactions
private in win7?

I don't claim any expertise in network security.

Having said that, I would observe:

1) Hardly a month goes by in which we do not hear about
some new exploit of the world wide network and/or
the PCs on it. Therefore safety is a moving target.

2) There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, really,
*really*, REALLY smart people working long hours trying to figure
out how to separate us from our money by compromising
network security.

Do any of them really care about my dinky little bank account and
retirement fund?

I would propose that as the real question.
--
Pete Cresswell

mike wrote:

Can you do safe online banking in win7?

Primary computer is win7 with firewall, AV, firefox, noscript...etc...
I've never had a known malware infection.
But that pesky "known" negates everything.

I'm paranoid about online banking.
For that, I boot a live linux CD that never goes anywhere but my bank.
It gives me a sense of security, but it's annoying.

Why don't you just install the Linux and use it instead? You'd have a far,
far less chance of being compromised by malware, keyloggers, hackers, and
all of that Windows-related stuff.

--
-bts
-This space for rent, but the price is high