I've been increasingly thinking I should use one of these. They seem to cost a couple of dollars a month. Necessary in today's online world?

What dodgy stuff are you up to?

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djt91184 said..
What dodgy stuff are you up to?

For a start, all my financials. The more anonymous your internet data transmission is, the harder to gather information to steal your money online. A colleague just had 200k taken from his online account recently and it's got me thinking.

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Harrow said..

djt91184 said..
What dodgy stuff are you up to?

For a start, all my financials. The more anonymous your internet data transmission is, the harder to gather information to steal your money online. A colleague just had 200k taken from his online account recently and it's got me thinking.

$200 was just taken from a online account with a bank?
Remuneration is possible or he is at fault somehow?

The best approach is to secure your platform - no I Do not mean Occy straps on the loo seat
How many peeps have a well secured phone??
It is more obvious and should be more ingrained to protect PC links but if U do not wrap up your platform then a VPN is after the horse has bolted...
FWIW I have IPVANISH on mobile platforms - but no payment apps on mobile as not sure how to get two-pass-security working.
By this I mean - moving money on web via pc then get 2PS code sent to mobile..

Cheers
AP

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djt91184 said..

Harrow said..

djt91184 said..
What dodgy stuff are you up to?

For a start, all my financials. The more anonymous your internet data transmission is, the harder to gather information to steal your money online. A colleague just had 200k taken from his online account recently and it's got me thinking.

$200 was just taken from a online account with a bank?
Remuneration is possible or he is at fault somehow?

Not $200, but $200,000!!!

He got it back in the end, but I'd rather not go through the stress. My in-laws work in banking security...this is a rather common occurance.

Money is there to be made . Go out and earn it. A friend of mine started a demo biz 12 years ago with nothing. Now he is enjoying life surfing & all that goes with it .he's got over 50 sub employees doing his **** for him.

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Harrow said..

djt91184 said..

Harrow said..

djt91184 said..
What dodgy stuff are you up to?

For a start, all my financials. The more anonymous your internet data transmission is, the harder to gather information to steal your money online. A colleague just had 200k taken from his online account recently and it's got me thinking.

$200 was just taken from a online account with a bank?
Remuneration is possible or he is at fault somehow?

Not $200, but $200,000!!!

He got it back in the end, but I'd rather not go through the stress. My in-laws work in banking security...this is a rather common occurance.

Yeah I gathered it was 200k just didn't add the zeros. If it gives you piece of mind then by all means use a vpn. I used to use a vpn and tor browser for a few years I think it was $5 a month aprox. I certainly felt more secure, as you can see your ip get scrambled and your location will be modified to another state etc.

just FYI paypal hates VPNs. they regularly block my accounts when I forget to turn it off before I log in (I know, right?)

I use VPN at all times except work computer, because they don't allow one. Phone too.

It's cheap and easy so why not?

Use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) on as much as you can. An SMS to your phone is not 2FA. 2FA requires something you have, not something you receive. There has been a spate of people stealing phone numbers by just walking into a shop and switching to a new phone; social engineering.

There has also been a spate of crims stealing people's mail and using it to gain access to all sorts of things. My mailbox gets broken into a few times a year. Just yesterday in fact.

#1 secure your email. Gmail has 2FA in conjunction with their Google Authenticator app. I expect others will have similar.
Once an attacker gets into your email account they can find all of your accounts, your personal details, and start resetting passwords as they see fit. Think about it.

I've gone as far as I can because I can, and I use a hardware device for bank and email identification.

Excepting the VPN which is a few dollars a month all of the above is free, as in beer.

P.S. Yes, modern life sucks. But once you've set it up once it's actually easy. Only a pain the first time.

I'll definitely look into 2FA on my email. If my account was hacked, my life would be &*%$^%*$.

Google did save me a while ago, preventing a login to my gmail with the proper password, except the IP was in the Ukraine.

For one of my banks, I must enter a number they send me, plus a PIN only I know, into a little device I have at home, that then generates an authentication code. Totally useless to anyone who steals it. My other bank sends verification codes via SMS, and I'm on the verge of leaving them because of it.

Sorry Harrow, I thought that said VPL. But alas!!!!

Happy to be corrected on this but me thinks that using a VPN service to access the net from home may make it actually less secure as you are bypassing the FW that most home routers have built in. To be clear I'm not talking about using VPN to connect to work network but using something like PIA or NordVPN....

All that VPN does is to your hide your traffic from local provider but it still breaks out straight to the internet elsewhere. That elsewhere has probably same bad guys as well... but now you are not sitting behind your home grade firewall. I doubt VPN providers restrict traffic in any way but as I said happy to be corrected (and too lazy to look it up).