On 1/10/2011 9:50 PM, Baz wrote:
Martin wrote in news:5RAhq.140
:


I suggest you stop reading scare stories in the Daily Mail or Express or
which ever paranoid right wing tabloid rag is feeding your delusions.

Get a grip. There are risks to being on the internet, but they can be
managed with a decent firewall and suitable anti virus and malware tools
will go a long way towards protecting you. Trouble is people click on
links and allow unknown code to run. Today even major players distribute
unsigned driver code online which is a total disgrace.

BTW: Knowing a postcode gives you next to nothing in a city.

You should probably be a lot more scared of 118 people search
http://www.118.com/people-search.mvc

Or the fully searchable copy of the (edited) electoral roll for England
given away with a computer magazine a few years back.

If you are really worried about online banking security you can run
something like Trusteer Rapport as recommended by some banks.

http://www.trusteer.com/product/trusteer-rapport

This blocks a most of the potential weak points in common browsers and
adds another layer of protection to secure online transactions.

Regards,
Martin Brown


I may appear to be an alarmist, but truly I am not.

I have a firm grip.

I would respectfuly ask you to wait until Forensic Internet Fraud(FIF) hits
the news before you condemn me. It will no doubt shock you.

I very much doubt that it will shock anyone with a firm grip on reality

While it is certainly possible to use computer forensic methods to
recover personal data, the very least of my worries is fraud. It is a
common misconception - encouraged by the banking industry - that you
lose financially if someone accesses your bank account fraudulently. It
is the bank that loses, not you. If they pay money out of your account
to a fraudster they are liable. They want you to think that you will
lose in order to keep you vigilant on their behalf.

Other personal data - such as the plethora of intimate photos etc.,
floating about the net could be more of a worry. Only for those dumb
enough to keep such images on a phone or computer.

There is no possible way short of breaking into my home at gunpoint that
anyone is going to get data from any of my computers. Even then, all
sensitive data is heavily encrypted, they would have fun trying to crack
into that.

They would have tremendous difficulty in finding me, my headers give
nothing away that is of use. I post through servers that are neither
associated with me not physically close to me.

I have an old system setup on my LAN that is outside the firewall,
simply as a tethered goat. There is nothing on it other than a bunch of
very erotic images of my ex wife and the contact details of my ex
mother-in-law, my wife's staff, and a number of her old boyfriends. I
keep hoping that someone will hack in and put them on some nice juicy
web site, but after nearly six years - not a nibble. Most problems are
acquired actively - you need to visit a malicious website or fail to
scan incoming mail.

Forensic science is used by organised criminals, as well as the
authorities.

Yes, I use it. I check up on kids for their parent's peace of mind.
Sometime they lose whatever peace of mind they started with - but not
often.