Porkchop Technology Review's

Internet banking is a very popular and growing trend with banks and people, the convenience of using your personal computer at home, and accessing your bank account, with the ability to do money transfers, apply for credit, and even see your current bank status immediately without having to update the passbook or going to an ATM.  Of course banks would like everyone to use ATM’s and Internet banking, ever since ATMs have come out, the bank’s probably saved a lot of money on staff they did not have to hire, and also now with Internet banking this more savings for the bank.  I personally do not think Internet banking is safe for the following reasons below.

Internet banking is not safe, the Internet banking site is secure, but your computer is not.  Internet banking sites are and should be protected by the padlock in the bottom the browser using 128bit encryption as well as the URL should be https:// not http:// if your bank is not using SSL encryption that I recommend that you immediately stop using the Internet banking and request that you get Internet banking disabled.  The 128bit encryption makes the data between you and the bank into code that is very difficult to decipher, this is the secure part about Internet banking.  The non-secure part about Internet banking, and this is the main reason why not to use it, is your own computer.  You can be infected by Trojans, viruses, key loggers, spyware, and botnets without even knowing it.  For example a key logger a hidden program in the background could be monitoring every keystroke, and could get your password and login details and the attacker can use this to gain access.  You might think that, since the bank has a policy that they will reimburse your account in the event of something happening, might be wrong, the reason why is because the bank can blame your computer for the fault, and that will be your problem not theirs, since in their computer it will show up as you, withdrawing the funds, not the attacker.  Also another problem with this is that there are a lot of spyware and viruses that do not get picked up by the virus scanners you have, a lot of stuff can slip by these programs, the only way a virus or spyware is detected is when the companies researching viruses and realising virus updates receive that virus.  Also a custom virus can be made by a hacker that won’t get detected by any scanners on the market and infect you, and since its custom it will never be picked up, until a reformat or you buy a new computer.  Never think a computer is unshakable, Mafia boy a high school student launched denial of service attacks in February 2000, against large commercial websites such as, Yahoo, Amazon, Dell, E-Trade, eBay, and CNN, this guy who was only in high school took down these major websites easily, and he could still do it today with the same method.  That is the reason why I don’t recommend Internet banking it’s too much of a risk.

If you are going to still use Internet banking here are some tips to take into consideration to make it a lot safer, but of course not hack proof, that is impossible.

• Get a firewall and Anti-virus and spyware protection – read my Computer Security article here
• Do not save passwords in the browser – This is a way hackers if they had access to your computer can just read you’re saved password easily or someone using your computer.  To show how easy it is this is an example in Firefox, Go to Tools, Options, and Security tab, saved passwords.  If you saved already your Internet banking login info delete it here.
• Beware of phishing emails and websites – For example, if you mistype a letter for your bank URL, and a hacker has a domain name that is off by one letter or a misspelled domain for the bank, and you still arrive to the website and it looks like the bank website, and you put your information in, the hacker has all the information needed and you won’t even realise it since you thought you were at your banks website, so always double check the URL at the top of the address bar.  Through emails, you may get an email that looks like it’s from your bank stating that they need your login info, remember the bank never emails you, if there is a problem they will call you.
• Don’t do Internet banking in public sites such as internet cafes, friend’s computer, public access Wi-Fi, always do it on your computer, since you know it’s secure and what’s on it.
• Use strong passwords with letters and numbers don’t use words found in the dictionary or names, many programs out there are called brute force, which means the program uses the dictionary to crack the password, this is good info for anything that requires a password, never use easy passwords and always change the password from time to time.  Also make the password difficult to guess, don’t make it your address or telephone number.
• Try to have a small bank account with Internet access with low funds not your main bank account if you must have a Internet banking account
• Talk to the bank and make sure you understand what happens if something does happen with your account and get it in writing since terms of service and policies change all the time in favour of the bank.  Make sure that if something does happen you will get your money back, or how much money they will secure you if something happens.

This is why I believe Internet banking is not safe, even with all the precautions it is still not safe to use in my opinion.  For example banks get robbed quiet often, and ATM’s get hacked, even though there is so much protection in place it does still happen and online now is the best way for those thieves to get money.  I’m pretty safe online myself, I do purchase items online but use a credit card with a low limit and only use is for online, which I suggest to get if you do any shopping online.

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