I am using X-Block. This software has a free version and a for fee deluxe version. 18 years ago I contacted the FBI because someone tried to rip me off via a goodsize electronic transaction. At that time they said they would not get involved in cases under $25k. But what really got me is that they said they can not get involved in an attempted crime anyway. It had to be a committed crime. The perpetrator was a tenant of mine who worked in a bank and somehow got hold of my personal info. He used that info to initiate a transaction in my name. The transaction failed because the third party got suspicious and alerted me. So it was not a crime. I appreciate reading this thread and everyone's contribution because it makes me realize that security should be a daily concern to us.
I posted on another thread. If you trade via wireless internet connection you must make sure your connection is fully secure from outside invaders. Perverts are driving around with laptops sharing connections. They are then downloading KIDDIE PORN. Your internet supplier has your name down as downloading kiddie porn and could relay this to police who in turn put your name on an international data base, not to mention charging you. This is becoming quite common.
Ask the author of the program, why it connects to this address. Probably just looking for the latest version of the program. Why should anyone be interested in your trades or anyone else's? Pretty boring I'd say. If a hacker is interested in some information, then it will be your account, password and in case of an IB account also your e-mail account password. Because TWS has to be started before any 3rd party program, the latter would have to install a keyboard logger to get the above information. There are tools to search for such a program, e.g. pestpatrol (www.pestpatrol.com). If you have a firewall installed, it will inform you anytime a program tries to connect to an address in the internet. Grant the permission to Autotrader only on a case-by-case basis. If it tries to access the internet regularly during a trading session, this should raise some suspicion. If you want to explicitly know, what Autotrader (or any other program) is sending to a specific address, you have to use a sniffer, like ethereal (www.ethereal.com). It will record any packet sent from your computer and allow for detailed analysis. If the information sent is encrypted, any further analysis will fail. But this fact alone would be highly suspicious. With both of these methods (firewall and sniffer) you have to take into account that the logger comes along with an SMTP client, that is sends the information to its master via email. The best cure still is to avoid getting a trojan horse/virus/whatever. Avoid dubious sites, do not open attachments (even when they come from an address known to you, first ask the sender!) and regularly check your computer by using some anti-trojan software plus a keyboard-logger detection program. And could someone move the ES please? (Like buy 10000 at market) Regards Bernd Kuerbs
what about your privacy? do they have rights(provider) to watch your activities on web? where is damm freedom? i pay for service,so leave me alone.. i read, how music companies sue kids for downloading music over web..again-it their provider must watch and report to those companies, that Joe just download last single of Snoop Dog.. do they have rights to do this? or my property(computer)is not main anymore? this is ridiculous. let apply same thing for phone calls then..
Actually here's another I heard from higher up. It concerns those cell phones with built in cameras. Apparently you or your kids could be at a gym or even a washroom. Someone comes in or is around the showers or changeroom and uses their cell phone. But they are not making a call . They are talking a picture or pictures of you or yours in a partially dressed or shower situation and sending it to a porn site for money. Apparently the picture is sent immediately to porn site. So now when in a gym watch who uses a phone close by. Women are doing this more than men.
What 's your experience with SpyBot ? Some reviews on CNET claim it itself contains some spyware and sometimes causes problems. There are also more than 1000 reviews, most of them raving about the product. I find this a little suspicious ...