[LINK] NSW Police: Don't use Windows for internet banking

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

NSW Police: Don't use Windows for internet banking
By Munir Kotadia
Oct 8, 2009 5:31 PM
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/157767,nsw-police-dont-use-windows-for-internet-banking.aspx

Cybercrime expert endorses Linux, iPhone when banking online.

Consumers wanting to safely connect to their internet banking service 
should use Linux or the Apple iPhone, according to a detective inspector 
from the NSW Police, who was giving evidence on behalf of the NSW 
Government at the public hearing into Cybercrime today in Sydney.

Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf from the Computer Crime 
Investigation Unit told the hearing that he uses two rules to protect 
himself from cybercriminals when banking online.

The first rule, he said, was to never click on hyperlinks to the banking 
site and the second was to avoid Microsoft Windows.

"If you are using the internet for a commercial transaction, use a Linux 
boot up disk - such as Ubuntu or some of the other flavours. Puppylinux 
is a nice small distribution that boots up fairly quickly.

"It gives you an operating system which is perfectly clean and  operates 
only in the memory of the computer and is a perfectly safe way of doing 
internet banking," van der Graaf said.

The collection of MPs listening to van der Graaf were very enthusiastic 
about his suggestion but didn't understand what he meant and asked for 
clarification.

"You may need to explain further for us," said one MP, while another 
responded, "yes, we need to understand that".

In response, van der Graaf explained what 'booting a computer' means and 
explained that his recommended method guaranteed a "100 percent clean 
installation".

He further explained that the clean boot would bypass any infections on 
the system. "if you have an infected hard disk ... that wont be an 
issue," he said.

Van der Graaf also mentioned the iPhone, which he called "quite safe" 
for internet banking.

"Another option is the Apple iPhone. It is only capable of running one 
process at a time so there is really no danger from infection," he said.

Van der Graaf said he mentioned the two alternatives to Windows because 
he was concerned about any future law that could require internet 
service providers or banks to check their users had protection before 
allowing them to connect.

"If you had a rule where ISPs would have to check for firewalls or that 
sort of thing, people using this safer system would not be able to do 
their internet banking. People using an iPhone, which is quite safe, 
would then not be able to do their internet banking," he added.

The hearing continues tomorrow when vendors including Microsoft and 
McAfee will make their presentations.

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au