BRH wrote:
- quote -

Good topic. I think that is a valid concern that your account info is
vulnerable. If you have a hardware firewall and pass the Shields Up
test, the chances of internet hacking should be less than than the
chances of a burglary. Here's my opinion on the various suggestions so
far:

- Saving to CDR: CDRs are not reliable for archival purposes. I've lost
so much data on CDRs before.

- Saving to removable USB hard drive: I think this is a pretty good
idea. The data will only be exposed to the internet part-time. Or to be
even more secure, you can disconnect the computer from the internet
while the removable HD is connected.

- Dedicating a non-networked computer: Even better idea. The data will
never be exposed to the internet.

- Encrypted file system: This can prevent someone who physically stole
your hard drive/computer from getting to the data. Windows XP has
built-in encryption support. Make sure to read this before
implementing:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223316
You have to make sure to have backups of your private key!

Whatever system, you have to make sure to have a regular backup system.
The media will fail one day. Also, I think the greatest security risk
these days are keylogging trojan software. I'm very paranoid of
installing any software whatsoever.

<<Am I being overly paranoid to worry about my account numbers now
being located on my hard drive (on the scanned statements)?>
Prices on low-end PCs have now fallen to just a few hundred dollars.
You could purchase such a machine and use it exclusively to
create/update/store/report your financial records. Order a machine with
no modem, or never plug it's modem into a phone line - use your
original PC for web browsing and email.

This would make your records totally inaccessible to anyone, unless
they are willing to actually break into your house.

John Cowart

BRH wrote:

- quote -

Thanks for all the responses. --- Good suggestions.

Rich Carreiro wrote:

- quote -

What happens if you have trouble reading those discs due to defects
or damage from light, scratches, humidity, etc. when you need the docs
at some point in the future? If one is going to get rid of all their
paperwork, I think they need to back up the electronic stuff to
multiple
media and periodically make sure that it is accessible from all of
them.
CDs/DVDs are not fail-safe.

Anoop

zxcvbob <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> writes:

- quote -

Or since the point of this is to replace keeping paper records around
for archival purposes, scan in the records, *burn them to a
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM*, and then erase them off your hard drive.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

BRH wrote:
- quote -

Unless you use OCR software (optical character recognition) they exist
on you harddrive as a bitmapped image, and a probably compressed image.
That's not somthing that can easily be retrieved electronically.
Someone would have to retrieve the whole file and actually look at it.
So I think you are being overly paranoid.

However, if you are paranoid like that, how about using a digital memory
card (like from your digital camera) to store everything. Plug it into
a USB port and use it like a "zip drive". Unplug it when it's not in
use. The data never has to actually be stored on your hard drive.

I recommend using an actual memory card and a USB card reader rather
than using one of those little integrated USB portable drives (thumb
drives?). In my limited experience with them, they are not reliable
enough. I've never lost any data on a Secure Digital (SD) memory card,
and I have a couple of 16MB SD cards that came with my digital cameras
that are pretty much useless for use in the camera because they are so
small. I've been thinking about using them to archive important
documents and sticking one in my safe deposit box.

Best regards,
Bob

Scan them to either a CD, DVD or zip drive and keep the back up in a secure
( from fire and water). That way if the hard crashes, a far more real
threat, you still have your files.


"BRH" <BRH[at]giganews.com> wrote in message
news:KuKdnWRqGtbxwLbeRVn-tA[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

"BRH" <BRH[at]giganews.com> wrote in message
news:KuKdnWRqGtbxwLbeRVn-tA[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

The account numbers could also be compromised by stealing your regular
postal mail

To reduce the risk, I put all my data files on a virtual drive. When it's
not mounted, it exists only as a file of encrypted data and looks like
garbage. That file is called a "container" When I save to a CD, I save the
container and have no worry as to what would happen if it falls into the
wrong hands as a special program and strong password are required to mount
the container.

When I mount the container, the files are decrypted with no delay.
Encryption also involves no delay.

Search on TrueCrypt to learn more. Other solutions exist but this works the
best for me. Past incarnations of this program are Scramdisk and E4M but
they don't work properly with Windows XP.

If your container is mounted it's vulnerable to hackers if they can get past
your firewall(s) or somehow get a trojan into your machine. A type of
trojan called a keylogger could also steal your password and in theory could
use it to mount your container.

If you are conscientious about security, update your OS regularly and run an
antivirus program it would be difficult to penetrate your system but there
is no 100% guarantee.

To see what your machine looks like to hacker, go to www.grc.com and run the
Shield's Up firewall test. There is also a good deal of computer security
information there that you may find interesting.

I would not settle for less than a "perfect" score on the firewall test.
The Windows XP firewall, by itself will not achieve this...at least not for
me.

In article <KuKdnWRqGtbxwLbeRVn-tA[at]comcast.com> , BRH <BRH[at]giganews.com> wrote:

- quote -

In my view, if you have a good firewall and security program, the hacking
threat is probably minor. If you are really paranoid, you could save the
info directly to a removable storage device, such as CD/DVD, USB/removeable
hard disc.

To see how likely a hacker is to get into your PC, use one of the free test
programs, such as Shields Up, on Steve Gibson's site:
http://www.grc.com/default.htm

In an earlier thread a few weeks ago, it was suggested to me to
elctronically scan my bank statements, etc in order to reduce the
clutter of paper statements filling up my file cabinet to overflowing.

While that will definitely cut down on the paper, I have a concern that
these statements which contain account numbers, name and address etc now
reside on my hard drive.

For those of you who scan your documents to your hard drive, aren't you
concerned about computer hacking/ID theft? Maybe I'm a bit paranoid
about this, but I have a broadband connection, although I do use a
router as a hardware firewall. And, although I use Quicken to track my
finances, none of the Quicken accounts contain financial institution
names or account numbers.

Am I being overly paranoid to worry about my account numbers now being
located on my hard drive (on the scanned statements)?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Bert