Why not have a dedicated rig for your trading? Hackers are getting more sophisticated everyday. Its just not porn http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2128813,00.asp On the other hand if you dont go off the reservation on unknown downloads to compromise your security chances are slim you'll have nightmare problems. good laptops are inexpensive. Get one to surf but not on your trading connection.
If you are autotrading you have to protect your intellectual property. It's not about the random @sshole hacker looking for credit card info or malicious idiots, it's about some serious theft. I want to have logging capabilities that won't quit so I can track the perps down and break ALL their bones....
That was an interesting article but its not clear to me if the advertiser had the trojan built into their banner or did someone, somehow, attach the trojan to the banner? You would still have to clik on the banner to get the trojan wouldnt you?
Want to revisit this.. but does anyone here use an offsite server to run their trading programs, either a VPN or dedicated setup? I would think that if you are serious about trading the cost of a VPN (about 30-50/mth) would be worth the extra security. And using these servers you have a better connection (usually) to where you are trading, unless you have a dedicated line from your home. I set up a VPN for a different reason but now I find myself using it exclusively for my trading. No surfing. And you can access it anywhere thru remote desktop. I am now thinking of upgrading the setup to a dedicated server ( a little more a month for a minimal setup) but when it comes to trading, in my mind, EXTREMELY worth it.
The computer on the right is strictly for trading, NOTHING ELSE. All else, surfing the net or word documents etc..., is done on the laptop on the left. And I'll use the laptop wirelessly to keep an eye on things when I want to take a dip in the pool or whatever. The family computer is in the den.
Do you guys run the windows updates on you dedicated trading computer. My one is pressed for CPU and I get the feeling these updates are just slowing down my machine. Is it necessary?
September 12, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. has started updating files on computers running Windows XP and Vista, even when users have explicitly disabled the operating systems' automatic update feature, researchers said today. Scott Dunn, an editor at the "Windows Secrets" newsletter, said that nine files in XP and Vista -- but not the same files in each operating system -- have been changed by Windows Update, the Microsoft update mechanism, without displaying the usual notification or permission dialog box. The files, said Dunn, are related to the XP and Vista versions of Windows Update (WU) itself. "We started hearing from readers that Windows was modifying files in the middle of the night, even when Windows Update was turned off," Dunn said today. Some machines' event logs pinpointed Aug. 24 as the date when the invisible updates began, but on one of Dunn's personal machines, the log showed the changes taking place this week. Dunn identified the changed files on Vista as wuapi.dll, wuapp.exe, wuauclt.exe, wuaueng.dll, wucltux.dll, wudriver.dll, wups.dll, wups2.dll and wuwebv.dll. And on XP SP2, he said, the changed files were cdm.dll, wuapi.dll, wuauclt.exe, wuaucpl.cpl, wuaueng.dll, wucltui.dll, wups.dll, wups2.dll, and wuweb.dll. In the past, Dunn noted, any changes to WU have been presented to the user for approval. "They at least warned you in advance," he said. Not so this time, said Brian Livingston, the founder and editorial director of the newsletter. "We don't completely understand the [WU] technology, but apparently this doesn't go through the Auto Update settings. A lot of companies are very sensitive about changes made to their PCs, and although there's absolutely no sign of any malicious intent on the part of Microsoft, if it starts doing this, people should have a lot of concerns." Microsoft gives users some flexibility in how their XP- and Vista-powered PCs retrieve and install updates and patches from the company's servers. In Vista, for example, users can turn off automatic updates entirely; check for, but neither download or install, any fixes; or download files but not install them. Although Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Dunn provided Computerworld with a copy of an e-mail he said "Windows Secrets" had received from Microsoft's online partner support. In the message, Microsoft only hinted at a reason for the changes: "7.0.6000.381 is a consumer-only release that addresses some issues after .374 was released. It will not be available via WSUS [Windows Server Update Services]." "What's waking up at 2 a.m. and downloading files?" asked Livingston.