I Am Afraid To Use My Mac To Do Internet Banking

Forex News said:

I use my iphone for just about anything, and have never had a single problem.  I hope it as secure as I think it is!

cico said:

The headline is misleading in a very bad way, it should read “I am rightfully afraid to store my private financial data on a god-knows-who-runs-this site”; internet banking is a whole lot of a different thing.

Anthony said:

You should give Moneydance a try. It’s a Java app that runs great on MacOS X and the developer is also working on an iPhone app that will sync with it.

http://www.moneydance.com/

scared cat said:

There’s a strange paradox going on here. On one hand we don’t hesitate to use a credit card online. On the other hand there’s an inherent fear of using online banking. I’m the same way. There is something to be said for having paper statements to come in the mail every month. Maybe one day there’ll be sufficient security that it won’t be a problem, but so far, regardless of the security measures taken, there’s always someone who can circumvent them.

That’s scary.

Riot Nrrrd™ said:

Alexis, I totally agree with you.

I have a MasterCard account with a big CC company and one of the options was to be notified by e-mail whenever any settings/info was changed on my account.

Imagine my shock and horror when one day I got an e-mail saying that my e-mail notifications were being changed to be sent to an “lpowery7@yahoo.com” instead of to me.

I immediately notified the CC company and had the card cancelled before any damage could occur.  I talked to their Security people and they told me that someone with an IP address in Wisconsin had connected to their server and changed my information.  To this day I have no idea how this happened because they refused to tell me anything more and their method for dealing with these things is simply to cancel the card and issue you a new account number/card.  (Never mind that I had memorized the old card #)  In other words, they weren’t going to go after the hacker; it was too easy to just move on and give me a new card.

My own personal policy is to never leave CC information on any site (“Remember card info?” Uh, no.).  The only site I know of that has my financial information is my Credit Union.

I would never, ever let a 3rd party company like Mint have my financial information, which is ironic - a long-time friend of mine now works for Mint.

Chad said:

This is an interesting topic. I buy things online all the time, mostly from places I know and trust like Apple, Amazon, and others. But I do NOT like to bank online. Somehow that just seems less secure to me. In Japan cell phones are used to “wave” to reading devices so a user can buy something without even pulling out a credit card. That will come to the States, too. Then again, how secure is your credit card when you give it to the waiter at a restaurant? Or, how secure is your checking account when you pay a bill and some person making $8.00 an hour does the data entry?

Augustus T. said:

I read something the other day about attempts to hack into the iPhone via Safari or other apps. Not successful. The iPhone seems pretty secure. Unless you give it to the thief/hacker. Then, not so much.

anonymous said:

I thought the iPhone was inherently insecure, so I am surprised that you would feel comfortable using the iPhone client of Cha-Ching. Anyway, interesting points and good topic.