Laptops and banking?

Question

We recently purchased a laptop to use while we travel. Is it safe to do banking on a laptop using wireless internet? Do we need to purchase any additional programs or gadgets to do so? You can tell I am not computer literate

Answer 1

If you are using a "public WiFi" hotspot, it is very much NOT safe to access ANY secured site through a web browser.

Session cookies can be (easily) captured and a hacker will have full access into your bank account.

The only safe way to do this from a public spot is to open a VPN tunnel to a trusted site, then access the secure site via the VPN tunnel...

You can check out http://openvpn.org for a free open-source solution for VPN, although, if you are computer illeterate as you say, it will not be something you want to tackle... Just remember if you don't have to enter a password for the hot-spot, it's not safe to use it for banking purposes.

Answer 2

Its very unsafe to do banking whilst connected to a wireless hotspot and should never do it, if you are at home you need to get into your routers browser based config menu and encrypt your connection.

Get the web address for your router by asking your internet provider or googling your providers name.

Answer 3

You just need a inbuilt wirelesss or external usb wireless adapter to go online. Make sure that you also have a antivirus software with personal firewall installed in the computer.

Answer 4

Just make sure you have a firewall installed. If you have Windows XP SP2 or later you should have a firewall. Don't worry though, if this laptop is brand spanking new it should have a firewall already on it. Also, it really depends on what security software (if any) you have on it and ultimately, what router you are connecting to. If it is a public router you may not be as safe as you would be if, let's say, you were using a private home router with a security code hard-wired into it.

So it really depends on where you are connected to the internet at.