More and more security experts are recommending that people avoid the use of Windows in any form when performing on-line financial transactions. Some experts say this is even more important for businesses than consumers because businesses have less time under the law to identify and report fraud.
Brian Krebs, the computer security expert for the Washington Post says in an October 9, 2009 Blog post:
An investigative series I’ve been writing about organized cyber crime gangs stealing millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses has generated more than a few responses from business owners who were concerned about how best to protect themselves from this type of fraud.
The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don’t use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.
He goes on to say that businesses, and presumably the rest of us as well, should use a “live CD” version of Linux to transact any type of financial business on the web because that is the only way to avoid the Windows Malware that steals your ID and your money.
Read the complete post. I won’t post the details here, because you can read the entire blog entry for yourself, but it seems that in one case thieves had hacked into the Windows computer of the bank controller in order to steal access codes.
How safe can your Windows computer be if an allegedly secure one belonging to a bank can be cracked so easily?
In Australia, the New South Wales police are recommending that consumers use Linux for on-line banking. Again they recommend using a Linux boot up disk or USB thumb drive to perform on-line financial transactions.
The reason? Linux is secure.
Complete Solution
I wonder why these experts only recommend using a Linux on a Live boot disk for financial transactions. Why not just move to Linux completely? Is the rest of your data, especially for businesses, not as important as your financial transactions? If you keep your accounting data on a Windows computer, your product designs, your marketing plans, emails discussing projects and potential projects with your customers, does that data not need to be protected as well?
Of course it does.
I recommend gong all the way with a complete security solution. Use Linux from beginning to end. Use Linux on your computers all the time. If you have one or two critical applications for which there are no Linux replacements and you must use Windows to run them, I recommend only running Windows as a guest in a virtual machine on a host computer running Linux.
Use Linux for a complete end-to-end, full time solution to keeping your data — all of your data — safe.
You might also want to find out what your bank is doing to keep your account information safe.
Thanks to Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols whose original blog post at ITWorld, “Windows unsafe for online banking? Shopping?” led me to this information.
July 10, 2010 8:34 am | 
Subscribe