[extropy-chat] The Business of Protecting Your Own Finances

[BillK]

On 4/26/06, Natasha Vita-More wrote:
>  I have been travelling recently and just returned to Austin and I found out
> that a someone had gotten into my  online banking account and had written
> and authorized a payment check to be sent to an address in New Jersey.  The
> amount was not trifling.  Online banking is insured at my bank so after the
> last few days of stress, things have resumed to normal.  We still do not
> know what happened, but it was probably a keystroke watch that got onto my
> computer and followed my moves.
>

Yes it could have been keylogger software that got into your computer.
It can be downloaded just by browsing a website (driveby downloads).
Or by downloading something else which had the keylogger attached.
Or by clicking on a file that was sent as an email attachment.
Or if you logged on via an internet cafe or a public network, the
system there might have been compromised (with or without the
knowledge of the operator) and have software logging all accounts and
passwords.
If your pc is ever left unsupervised then it only takes minutes for
someone to install keylogger software.
And sometimes people have their pc setup to remember account numbers
and passwords (to save them the hassle of keying them in every time),
so a stranger just needs a few minutes unsupervised access to get the
necessary data or action the bank transfer.

Or it could even be a bank staff member who came across your data and
was tempted.

But overall, it is becoming more and more difficult to defend Windows
computers against attack. The latest keyloggers use rootkit technology
that make them almost undetectable by normal scanning software.
Installing and maintaining all the necessary security stuff in today's
world is a really significant overhead.

BillK