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Safety on Computers

Started by dew7, March 29, 2004, 01:10:55 AM

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Jeysie

Dew: That's good to hear. ;)

I'm not going to say that Mozilla/Firefox and Opera don't have any security issues, because they do have bugs of their own. But the security-related bugs, at least, get fixed very quickly after being discovered, plus you don't have to download a large Windows Update to get the fix.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Yonkey

Online banking usually requires browsers that support 128-bit SSL encryption.  I'm not sure about Opera and the rest, but I know that MSIE and Netscape support it.
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Jeysie

Opera supports all the SSL protocols. I don't know off-hand if Mozilla and Safari do, but I don't see why they shouldn't. (In fact, since Safari is the default Mac browser now, I sure hope it does! :P )

Peace & Luv, Liz

Yonkey

But in particular 128-bit?  I know by default IE6 does now, but IE5 and below only had 56-bit.
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Jeysie

#104
OK, now that I'm home, I can go link diving.

http://www.opera.com/support/search/supsearch.dml?index=59

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/help-viewer/docs/firebird/prefs.html#security

I hear that Opera's pretty nice on the handheld front, since it uses a "small-screen rendering" technology to format webpages for the phones, plus it has support for handheld CSS files.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Yonkey

Hmm, so it seems that both browsers are fully capable of doing online banking.  But your bank forces you to use IE?  ??? Hmm, I'm gonna test Opera on three banks over here.
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Jeysie

#106
My bank's site (Banknorth) seems to work fine in Opera, although admittedly I've never done anything more complicated on the site than checking my monthly balances and recent transactions. I don't have enough bills in my name or any funds to transfer to bother with online banking.

I've read many accounts here and there around the Net about people using non-IE browsers having issues, though. Like this log entry, for instance. (shrug)

Peace & Luv, Liz

Yonkey

#107
I just tested Opera 7.23 at ScotiaBank, TD CanadaTrust and President's Choice Financial.  All of them worked, but TD CanadaTrust required cookies.  ;P
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Yonkey

Unless that guy's bank's site was designed with Frontpage (or Microsoft Word ;P), I don't see why it wouldn't work with Safari.  He doesn't say specifically why his browser wouldn't work, and if Safari has 128-bit encryption, then I don't see why it shouldn't work.   ::)
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Louisiana Night

#109
QuoteUnless that guy's bank's site was designed with Frontpage (or Microsoft Word ), I don't see why it wouldn't work with Safari.

Frontpage sites won't work with Safari? I've used Frontpage Express, and I didn't know it had problems with any internet browser(but I can see why it would).

Yonkey

I actually have no idea, but I've heard of pages designed in Frontpage being somewhat IE-specific.  
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Louisiana Night

Makes sense, I'll have to look into it.

dew7

Jeysie, does FireFox have 128 bit encryption?
Carpe Diem  Trying to help all of us including myself understand the merry-go-round of life.

Jeysie

Yonkey: The encryption doesn't really have anything to do with it, it's more a question if the bank uses things like ActiveX or IE-only javascript, or just simply uses a browser detection script to block out other browsers because they *think* other browsers can't handle it.

I got the feeling that the guy who wrote that post didn't state what was wrong with Safari's handling of the site because he didn't know exactly what was wrong.

Dew: If you dig around on the site, there's spec docs about the Firefox engine that seem to state that it can handle 128-bit encryption, but they're pretty geeky. You could try searching the Mozilla forums, or just asking yourself, that might work. :)

Peace & Luv, Liz

racx_00

Nothing wrong with Rants ;D
Knight of Jarada - Master Mind 8)
Assistant Manager of the TSL Asylum XD

dew7

We let the cashier supervisers know right away about problems with the registers at Target so they can be fixed.  The store is way too busy to deal with a mostly broken register.
Carpe Diem  Trying to help all of us including myself understand the merry-go-round of life.

dew7

#116
This article about laws to stop spyware may interest a few people.


EDIT (By Yonkey): Forum stretching. :P

Carpe Diem  Trying to help all of us including myself understand the merry-go-round of life.

Yonkey

#117
Quote from: Jeysie on June 18, 2004, 06:15:38 AM
Yonkey: The encryption doesn't really have anything to do with it, it's more a question if the bank uses things like ActiveX or IE-only javascript, or just simply uses a browser detection script to block out other browsers because they *think* other browsers can't handle it.

Hmm, isn't this some sort of violation of US Antitrust Law?  Microsoft was sued for creating operating systems with IE-only so if this guy could prove that the bank is forcing its clients to use non-Safari browsers, he might have a case!  :P

Anyway, it's ridiculous to design websites like that.  If the bank doesn't think other browsers can work on their site, they should hire web designers that know how to make it possible, or rethink the way that portion of their site is designed.  I mean, it's obvious that it's possible if so many other banks have no browser compatibility issues.  ::)
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."

Drunken Chinchilla

We dont have signatures any more. Instead shops have a number pad which you have to enter your pin number in that you use to withdraw cash with. Much safer as long as you dont get tailed after the shop and mugged lol.
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Yonkey

#119
You use that for credit cards or debit cards?  Cuz we have that keypad and pin stuff for debit only.
"A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything."