[LINK] A security question

Craig Sanders cas at taz.net.au
Wed Dec 18 12:00:14 AEDT 2013


On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 06:03:04AM +0900, Dr Bob Jansen wrote:
> I have a security question one of you may be able to answer. Which
> device is more secure for internet banking, a laptop such as a macbook
> , an iphone or an ipad? As far as i am aware, the iphone and ipad's
> sandbox facility makes keyloggers difficult but then they do not have
> any antivirus capability (I use Sophos on the mac laptop, and it
> reports clean).

a laptop. you can boot linux on it using a USB stick or cd-rom or even
on a dedicated linux partition on the HD (but don't allow the browser
to save your banking login or password...if they are stored on the hard
disk there will always be a possibility that it can be retrieved, and
both mac and windows can be made to read some linux filesystems).

reboot to linux to do your banking, reboot again to your usual
environment afterwards. no need to ever worry about viruses or
keystroke-loggers or other malware.

even if you don't use Linux for anything else (and especially if you
normally use Microsoft Windows for your day-to-day computing) you should
use linux for your internet banking.



NOTE: running linux in a VM under windows or mac is not secure. the host
OS may still be running a keystroke logger or its network stack may be
compromised or running other malware.


BTW, I would never use a phone or a tablet for anything even remotely
related to banking, not even simple purchases from web sites - they (IOS
and Android) are riddled with spyware, even more so than PCs *because*
spyware is the business model of almost all tablet/phone apps whether
they are "free" or paid.  They are untrustworthy devices and should be
treated as such.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>



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