BootsnAll Travel Community

Anyone have any experience doing this? since I signed up for it, it's the only way I do my banking - paying bills, managing my accounts, etc. Very easy and convenient.

We are going to be gone for several months, will have bills back home to pay (certain on-going expenses which can't be avoided), and will need to transfer funds into our 'operating account' if you will.

Looking for tips, pointers, advice, anyone have any experiences to share... mostly, is it safe? I imagine I'll change the password fairly frequently, just in case...

Use online banking myself for virtually all banking other than getting some cash but have only used from overseas very infrequently.
I would think that if you were online within say a hostel or other accomodation, there could be less chance than a problem occurring at an internet cafe but then again internet cafes want to keep a reasonable reputation too I'd expect, and perhaps the greatest problem in future will occur with spyware that could get people anywhere online.

I run spyware scanning every couple of days at home even now I'm aware of how much can get onboard and how quick.
Some banks in Oz offer the service of a secondary security code now over and above a password, but you have to pay for it, so if you're concerned and want some extra security, you could look into that.

I use online banking anywhere in the world, but there is a risk!!

Read the small print with your online bank, and I think yoll find, that they cannot guarantee security if you log on anywhere else except the country where the bank originates. This means that if somehow, someone hacks into your online bank and steals money, the bank will not replace the money or accept responsibility. Whereas if you had logged on, in your own country, the bank will replace and take responsibility. Catch my drift??!!

Saying all this, I still do it and just take the risk.

having gone over my banks website and terms quite thoroughly, it would seem that using the 'reasonable person' standard (ie, not being a dumbass and giving out you PIN, and other confidential information), there doesn't appear to be anything specific to using public computers, at home or abroad.
basically it says that the bank will hold responsibility in case of theft, trickery, forceful something-or-other... which to me, a compromised account due to spyware would fall into those categories.

I will ask when I actually go to the bank, but I think we're safe. if anything happens, I think it will be the hassle that would be the biggest pain in the butt.

(as an aside, what kind of interest rates are people getting on savings accounts around here? I checked out my bank, and the best they could give me for an account I actually had access to (as opposed to a GIC account, or locked in savings) was around 2.8%, 3% for a 6 month GIC. Checked out ING direct, for a full access account, 3%, and 3.6% on a 6-month GIC. pretty sure the last time I had a GIC we were getting around 4%. I was hoping for better, but then again, these are 0-risk options. just curious how it compares)

My bank, UBS, gives me a little gadget that spits out a unique challenge/response code every time I want to access my account. Having a username and password is not enough. This gave me great confidence with online banking on the road.

Maybe you can find a bank in Canada that has such devices?

how to bank securely while travelling is worth checking out as well

That's pretty cool Court, great learning for us ignoramuses who know next to nought about it all.
I s'pose if while you're doing this, the owner comes up to say "what the hell" and you reply " just checking to see if you are ridgy didge"
and he says "well yeah piss off"
That's your cue to say very loudly "hey peoples, this prick is feeling uncomfortable about me checking for a key stroke logger, maybe you want to join me in exiting this place"

someone has figured out my secret! Awesome article, Court--I use Knoppix when travelling. And to think I was the only one.

Now I am paranoid. I am planning to use internet banking for my whole trip to transfer money from my ISA account to my checking account. I have done so on previous trips with no problem but after reading this I am freaking out.

Does anyone have a rough idea of how many people do have their account compromised while travelling?

Jim

Well, the discussion here has focused on being paranoid. Given how much money online banking can give access to, a little paranoia can't hurt. That said, like you I've used internet banking before with no precautions and no negative effects, and I expect the odds are good that I could continue to that.

Still, some basic precautions are easy...in testing out various live CDs as suggested in the article Court linked to (and something I had thought about in the past but never acted on), I came accross Damn Small Linux which is a much lighter weight option than the versions suggested in the article, which seems to fit my purposes perfectly. Even if you haven't a clue what you're doing, you just download the CD image and burn it, and restart the computer with the CD in the drive and it'll work.

2wanderers, how o yu mean "which is a much lighter weight option than the versions suggested in the article"?

You have piqued my curiosity

Well, by lighter weight, the item that was important to me was faster boot time...it takes about as long to boot damn small linux off of a CD as it takes to boot my full sized install of Gentoo on my hard drive. By comparison, the Ubuntu live CD took at least 10 minutes to load. I haven't tested knoppix recently, but as I recall it also took quite a while to load.

Lighter weight also means it doesn't bog down on older computers. The biggest difference here is window manager. Instead of using the big, bloated ones like KDE (Knoppix) or Gnome (Ubuntu), it uses the much simpler fluxbox.

Of course, it's also damn small (50MB), so if it's important to you it can be put on one of those mini-CDs, the size of a business card, or put on to a 64MB USB key.

I should note that I tried the USB key install, and I don't really recommend it, because it makes it impossible to use the key to store files for use in Windows...it partitions the stick, and Windows can only see the first partition, which is filled with system files, despite both partitions using a windows compatible format. Instead, I used a boot option to keep my home directory on the USB stick and still boot from CD. (If you're trying it, the boot option is: dsl mydsl=sda1)

DSL still contains a fully functional firefox browser, some stripped down office tools, most of the command line tools you're likely to use (the only one I've missed so far is locate) and a few games. Also, the hardware support system is based on knoppix, so it should still work properly on almost any PC.

This is way too much science for us dumb asses the second one.
Do you reckon it is possible that seeing you have that small linux link there, if we bring up whatever the site is, does it have a download that you can just download straight on to the computer that you might be on?

Meanwhile Jim, I'd just solve 99% of paranoia hopefully by looking at the back of the box for a funny looking connection.

quote:

Originally posted by gonorth:
This is way too much science for us dumb asses the second one.
Do you reckon it is possible that seeing you have that small linux link there, if we bring up whatever the site is, does it have a download that you can just download straight on to the computer that you might be on?

I knew that. The second post was for the benefit of Woody, who asked a specific question. And to your question...yes, if you follow this link, you can download a CD image, and as long as you know how to burn it to a disk, you'll be set.

quote:

Meanwhile Jim, I'd just solve 99% of paranoia hopefully by looking at the back of the box for a funny looking connection.

I'd guess that the reverse is true...that keylogging is far more commonly done by software (solved by booting from a live cd), than by hardware (the gadget on the back of the computer).

2wanderers, right on, thanks for the explanation. Will have to check out DSL. As for knoppix boot times, it isnt the fastest--takes me about 2.5 minutes to boot up my AMD 3500 (at stock 2.2 ghz).

Marshall

What I was hoping neil was that if I'm sitting in a seedy cafe in Timbuktoo with a dodgy looking guy running the place, that I could download it straight on to his shonky computer.
If you can download to burn, can't you download straight to the PC., thanks
Greg

quote:

Originally posted by gonorth:
What I was hoping neil was that if I'm sitting in a seedy cafe in Timbuktoo with a dodgy looking guy running the place, that I could download it straight on to his shonky computer.
If you can download to burn, can't you download straight to the PC.

Doesn't work that way. You need to boot from CD in order to solve the security threat posed by a software keylogger.

A couple of years ago, Belize wasn't hooked up internationally to a banking system. I found myself using my credit card all the time, and then finding a computer and paying off the bill that day. It was a pain, but I got 'er done.

quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:
My bank, UBS, gives me a little gadget that spits out a unique challenge/response code every time I want to access my account. Having a username and password is not enough. This gave me great confidence with online banking on the road.

Maybe you can find a bank in Canada that has such devices?

We have something similar. Can't work out exactly how it works. Username, password plus you press a button on a little device purchased from the bank. Up comes a random six digit number each time you press. You enter it and only then can you log on.
I thought it was mickey mouse for a start but evidently there is a quick period synchronizing of numbers for your account and each set of numbers only works for a two minutes. Or something like that. When I enquired further about how it works they declined to go any further than that.
At home I just leave it sitting next to the computer which is pretty dumb given our house always unlocked (rural living syndrome) but if we travelled with it, the only risk would be losing the thing.
There is always someone working on cracking these things but feel very secure with it.
This is with a fairly minor Australian bank. Would be surprised if US banks didn't have something similar on offer.
The annoying thing with travel is the $6.00 charge for using an overseas ATM these days. Makes you think about going back to travellers cheque.

quote:

Originally posted by geok:

quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:
My bank, UBS, gives me a little gadget that spits out a unique challenge/response code every time I want to access my account. Having a username and password is not enough. This gave me great confidence with online banking on the road.

Maybe you can find a bank in Canada that has such devices?

We have something similar. Can't work out exactly how it works. Username, password plus you press a button on a little device purchased from the bank. Up comes a random six digit number each time you press. You enter it and only then can you log on.
I thought it was mickey mouse for a start but evidently there is a quick period synchronizing of numbers for your account and each set of numbers only works for a two minutes. Or something like that. When I enquired further about how it works they declined to go any further than that.
At home I just leave it sitting next to the computer which is pretty dumb given our house always unlocked (rural living syndrome) but if we travelled with it, the only risk would be losing the thing.
There is always someone working on cracking these things but feel very secure with it.
This is with a fairly minor Australian bank. Would be surprised if US banks didn't have something similar on offer.
The annoying thing with travel is the $6.00 charge for using an overseas ATM these days. Makes you think about going back to travellers cheque.

I've just switched banks to Credit Suisse, which has the little device you speak of. My is labled RSA. Yes, it does seem to be a time sychronized device.

Pro: it's a key chain thingy, so easy to take about.
Con: No password on it, like my UBS calculator.

My US bank (Bank of Hawaii) has really limited eBanking. I've not heard of anyone in North America having such devices, but some should.