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Q&A: Public Wi-Fi isn't 
safe for online banking

July 9, 2010


QUESTION: I have a Macbook Pro that I use when away from home. Would you consider it safe to use library and motel Internet connections to do online banking?

Gerry Sweet , Bloomington, Minn.

ANSWER: I wouldn't do it because it's a huge risk.

Public Wi-Fi hotspots are good for Internet browsing, but not banking, because security is weak and even encryption (coding) is no guarantee of protection.

Public wired Internet connections have a certain unknown quality—you don't know who has access to the Web server you're using, and that should make you cautious.

But the wireless security issue is the most pressing one, if for no other reason than free Wi-Fi is proliferating in libraries, coffee shops and restaurants. In any of these places, it's possible for another computer user in the same Wi-Fi hotspot to snatch and read your unencrypted Wi-Fi messages as they move through the airwaves. Even encrypted wireless messages aren't safe from being decoded and read.

In addition, an unscrupulous person with the right software could use his or her computer to masquerade as the Wi-Fi hotspot, so that you'd actually be communicating with the thief instead of the public Wi-Fi. The thief could harvest your passwords, then gather even more personal information by passing you on to a phony banking website that looks exactly like the one you're trying to contact.

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Q: I recently tested the data backup function of Windows Vista and discovered that it worked well. But it was just a test and now I want to delete the contents of the restore folder.

However, Vista won't let me delete some of the items, and I'm left with more than 8 gigabytes of backup files with names such as Adobe and Windows Media Player that serve no apparent function. Can you help?

Greg Wright , Ottawa, Canada

A: By denying you the right to delete your backup files, Vista is saying that "you aren't the boss of me" — even though you should be.

Why? To protect your PC from tampering, Windows Vista limits the ability of users to change settings. Only one person is the primary user who can control everything on the computer; everyone else who uses the PC is a secondary user with limited discretion. To become that primary user, you need to alter Vista's settings to give you both "ownership" of the files you want to delete and "administrator" status so you can delete them. The process to do that, which includes 30 steps, can be found at tinyurl.com/2df6rnm. Follow the directions, and you'll be the undisputed boss of your PC.

 


McClatchy-Tribune Information Services