Yesterday we talked about how you can avoid fees when downloading bank data with Money or Quicken. At the bottom of this piece, Smart Money advises us to consider security when downloading financial information. Here's why:
If you opt to download your financial information, you open yourself up to security concerns. Should someone hack into your computer, all of your financial information could be stolen or exposed. "It would make impersonating you very easy," warns David Maynor, a security researcher at Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems Inc.
Here's what the software companies are doing about it:
Microsoft and Intuit say they take security seriously. Both programs use complex encryption, and never keep all of your information on your hard drive. So, for example, a program might store your bank username and account number, but not your password or PIN.
But you're still at risk:
Maynor says that's not enough — many viruses, spyware programs and worms target Quicken and Microsoft Money files. He advises you to take precautions when downloading information and storing it.
Here are his suggestions:
Downloading. It's less common for thieves to capture information in transit, called a man-in-the-middle attack, but it does happen. Download your account information only at home, where you can control the security. Even at work, your employer might be monitoring your computer use, and might inadvertently capture some of your personal data.
Storage. To keep your information safe, make sure you stay up to date with your computer system security patches. You should also install a good firewall and regularly update your virus program. Your best bet is not to store the financial information on your computer at all. Instead, keep it on a secondary storage device such as a disk or a flash memory plug-in.
Good advice for us all to follow.
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