As reported by ITNews at the NSW Parliamentary Hearing into Cybercrime, Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf from the Computer Crime Investigation Unit has told the MPs that you shouldn’t use Microsoft Windows for Internet banking. He recommended using Linux or the Apple iPhone. The politicians were a bit confused when he mentioned Linux so he explained that you could boot a computer using a Linux Live CD, like Puppy Linux or Ubuntu, and you have a graphical operating system. “It gives you an operating system which is perfectly clean and operates only in the memory of the computer and is a perfectly safe way of doing internet banking,” van der Graaf said. This gives you a secure environment that can’t run Windows viruses or malware, even if the installed Windows system is infected. Provided you always type the URL of your bank instead of following hyperlinks, the only possible issue is hardware keyloggers which you can physically check on any computers you use.
An example of a USB keylogger is the KeyGhost KeyLogger* whick is available from $US199.
*Note: This link is only provided so you can see images of typical keyloggers. It in no way recommends or promotes these products or the illegal use of this hardware.
