- August 7, 2018
- Posted by:
- Categories: Archer News, Cyber Crime, Cyberattack, Financial Sector Security, Hacking, Mobile Devices, Posts with image, Scam Alerts, Smart Devices
It’s so convenient.
You just jump on your phone or on a friend’s computer and do your banking.
But ESET’s Cameron Camp has some advice for you about banking online.
Watch here:
‘Dark alleys’
“If you’re going to do your banking transactions, don’t do them in a ‘dark alley,’” Camp said. “Don’t do them on a computer you’re not familiar with, that you don’t know the history of.”
That can include a computer at your friend’s house.
“A friend’s computer that you don’t know anything about might be infected,” he explained.
That can also include public Wi-Fi, where someone can watch your transactions and steal your passwords without you knowing. Or even Wi-Fi at your friend’s house.
“If you’re out in town, I would always recommend — if you have to do some banking — go ahead and connect to your carrier’s network. The data charges are going to be insignificant and it’s a network that you know that’s far less likely to be intercepted than your buddy’s Wi-Fi in his garage,” Camp said.
Think about where you are doing your online banking. Is it safe? Photo credit: ota_photos via Foter.com / CC BY-SA
Home Wi-Fi — at a friend’s house
No phone banking on your friend’s home Wi-Fi?
“I’m not going to say you shouldn’t, I’m going to say I wouldn’t,” Camp explained. “I’m going say I’m going to take my device and hook it up to a carrier’s network and make sure nothing is acting funny on my device. It didn’t ask me to download some things I didn’t know about. And I would definitely stick to my carrier’s network.”
“Not to say you can’t transact securely on a wireless network. Why take the risk?” he added.
For example, you friend might have configured his or her system to be less secure.
“Oftentimes, when you have some sort of security suite,” Camp said, “when you just install it, you just click ‘yes,’ ‘next,’ ‘next,’ ‘next.’”
“And one of these ‘nexts’ might be that you don’t turn on the firewall that would protect against financial activities,” he said.
“Take two more seconds. Read the screens,” he advised. “And then you may want to disable or enable notification of potentially unwanted applications. It’s one click. It’s one swipe. It’s much, much more difficult for the bad guys to get past.”
Find a friend — a tech friend
Camp also recommends you find a friend who is good at tech stuff and stay in contact.
“If they have a tech friend they can call,” he said. “Sometimes you go to your IT guy and he makes fun of you. That doesn’t feel comfortable. So, the person you can buy coffee and say, ‘I don’t know if this is really legit,’ would help so, so much.”
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