Please help us with a fraud situation

Please help us with a fraud situation
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Please help us with a fraud situation irfansmith 05-27-2008
Posted by on May 27, 2008, 11:00 pm
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Please help us with a fraud situation

We had some identity thefts situations with our credit cards and Bank
accounts.
People using our credit cards and writing checks against our account.

How can I set up a really secure internet connection in my home ?

I use a Windows XP - wireless laptop to access the internet I have
in my home.
We use Comcast cable.
We have a WPA secure internet. We use a Netgear Rangemax MIMO
and the Comcast modem.

Somehow some people have managed to get both our credit card numbers
and bank account numbers and even driving license number.

I use this internet to access all our bank accounts etc.

Because of the fraud that occurred, we want to make sure that
we have a really secure internet connection.

What additional hardware, software etc do I need, if any ?
Since I am not a techie, pls help me with as much detail as possible.


Thanks in advance for your help,

Irfan Smith

Posted by Burkhard Ott on May 28, 2008, 2:22 am
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Am Tue, 27 May 2008 20:00:26 -0700 schrieb irfansmith:

> How can I set up a really secure internet connection in my home ?

You won't have a 100% secure connection.

> I use a Windows XP - wireless laptop to access the internet I have
> in my home.
> We use Comcast cable.
> We have a WPA secure internet. We use a Netgear Rangemax MIMO
> and the Comcast modem.
>
> Somehow some people have managed to get both our credit card numbers
> and bank account numbers and even driving license number.

1. check you computers for malware
2. check who has access to you network (people) and how does they handle
with sensoble data
3. check what you throw to the garbage (receipts, old
bills etc.)

I don't think you loose your informations only on the internet connection.

cheers

Posted by Newbie72 on May 28, 2008, 10:58 am
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> Am Tue, 27 May 2008 20:00:26 -0700 schrieb irfansmith:
>
> > How can I set up a =A0really secure internet connection in my home ?
>
> You won't have a 100% secure connection.
>
> > I use a Windows XP - wireless laptop to access the =A0internet =A0I have=

> > in my home.
> > We use Comcast cable.
> > We have a WPA secure internet. We use a Netgear Rangemax MIMO
> > and the Comcast modem.
>
> > Somehow some people have managed to get both our credit card numbers
> > and bank account numbers and even driving license number.
>
> 1. check you computers for malware
> 2. check who has access to you network (people) and how does they handle
> with sensoble data
> 3. check what you throw to the garbage (receipts, old
> bills etc.)
>
> I don't think you loose your informations only on the internet connection.=

>
> cheers

I agree,

You probably did not loose all this info due to your wireless
connection. your info probably got nabbed because someone hacked a
merchant you use, or someone who uses your computer from within your
house opened an email attached which contained malware like maybe a
key logger on your computer.

1 Make sure you have active and up-to-date Anti Virus/Anti Spyware
installed and are doing regular scheduled scans.
2 So your using WPA. What encryption/authenication mechanisim are you
using. IE TKIP/AES for encryption or Pre-share or Radius for
authentication?
3 Wireless will never be 100% secure. Due to the fact that your
broadcasting data over the air it will always have a hicher risk of
attack
4 Hide Your SSID
5 Don't use identifyable comment for your SSID. IE, Dont make your
SSID your house address or your family name or anything else that can
link your house/name to your wireless connection. it makes it to easy
for someone to camp outside your house and hack away.
6 Dont open attachments or emails from anyone you dont know
7 Use a Statefull Inspection Firewall. Packet switching firewalls do
not track the state of the data.
8 Disable services you dont need. If your not running a web server
uninstall IIS.
9 Dont respond to any email which asks you to verify your username/
passwords, banking information, or any other personal info which
appear to be coming from your banks fraud department. Banks will never
ask you for your passwords in an email. If you get information like
that call the bank directly to confirm if there is an issue.
10 Stop using cordless phones to communicate personal information
during telephone conversations unless the conversation is encrypted.
If you ever want to know what your neighbors really think of you, go
out to radio shack and spend 50.00 on a police/fire scanner. Depending
on the frequency your cordless phone is using many of these types of
scanners can also pickup cordless phone conversations and play them
out the speaker in plain text.
11 If you want 100% security on your pc then erase the data on the
computer and unplug it and put in a box. there is no such thing as a
100% secure computer because they are inherently at risk due to
physical and logical theft. As soon as you plug it into the internet
that risk is elevated.
12 For god sakes if your using microsoft wallet....stop it. Dont click
on the box to remember your usename and passwords either.

good luck.

Posted by Sebastian G. on May 28, 2008, 11:25 am
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Newbie72 wrote:


> 1 Make sure you have active and up-to-date Anti Virus/Anti Spyware
> installed and are doing regular scheduled scans.


Well, I though he wanted his to computer to not be insecure?


> 4 Hide Your SSID


Achieves nothing.

> 5 Don't use identifyable comment for your SSID. IE, Dont make your
> SSID your house address or your family name or anything else that can
> link your house/name to your wireless connection. it makes it to easy
> for someone to camp outside your house and hack away.


Bullshit. In fact, the SSID should exactly be identifiable due to imposing a
clear privacy restriction.

> 6 Dont open attachments or emails from anyone you dont know


Why not? I expect my mail client to be able to handle this, since it
generally can't be avoided.

> 7 Use a Statefull Inspection Firewall. Packet switching firewalls do
> not track the state of the data.


Welcome to the 90's, eh, I mean the 21st century. No one uses stateless
firewalls any more.


> 12 For god sakes if your using microsoft wallet....stop it. Dont click
> on the box to remember your usename and passwords either.

Says someone who abuses MSIE as a webbrowser...

Posted by Newbie72 on May 29, 2008, 3:45 pm
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> Newbie72 wrote:
> > 1 Make sure you have active and up-to-date Anti Virus/Anti Spyware
> > installed and are doing regular scheduled scans.
>
> Well, I though he wanted his to computer to not be insecure?
>
> > 4 Hide Your SSID
>
> Achieves nothing.
>
> > 5 Don't use identifyable comment for your SSID. IE, Dont make your
> > SSID your house address or your family name or anything else that can
> > link your house/name to your wireless connection. it makes it to easy
> > for someone to camp outside your house and hack away.
>

>

>
> > 7 Use a Statefull Inspection Firewall. Packet switching firewalls do
> > not track the state of the data.
>

>
> > 12 For god sakes if your using microsoft wallet....stop it. Dont click
> > on the box to remember your usename and passwords either.
>
> Says someone who abuses MSIE as a webbrowser...

I dont abuse MSIE.

> Welcome to the 90's, eh, I mean the 21st century. No one uses stateless
> firewalls any more.
Not all SOHO routers you buy at Best Buy/Circuit City/Comp USA or
other type stores are statefull.

> Bullshit. In fact, the SSID should exactly be identifiable due to imposing=
a
> clear privacy restriction.
I would like to see a non-commercial use router that gives you
spot to put a confidentiality banner.... Linksys, Netgear and the
alike dont make them like that, or atleast I have not seen one Yet.
Security through Obscurity is not a fool proof Security practice. It
does however make it more dificult to hack what cant see. If given the
chance to hack client A which is easy to discover versus client b
which is not. Some might say they would go after client a. some might
say they would go after client b because client must have something to
hide. it will take you longer to hack client b because it may take
more work. In the extra time you may get caught.

In the most states in the US it is a crime to intentionally connect to
any computer or network that you do not have direct ressponablity
over.

> > 6 Dont open attachments or emails from anyone you dont know
>
> Why not? I expect my mail client to be able to handle this, since it
> generally can't be avoided.
Good luck with that! Must be some hell of an email client that can
differentiate what is a malicous attachment and what is not.

Good luck, have a great day.


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