Financial security on the internet

[GTM]

It seems many use financial software such as Quicken and MS Money.
Many access thier bank accounts and brokerage accounts online some may not even get paper statements to confirm their holdings.

This seems OK to me for credit cards since the bank usually is responsible but Quicken and Money I wonder about. Especially if account numbers are included on the software.

Any concerns here?

 

[AltaRed]

What specifically are you worried about? Quicken and MS Money don't phone home that I know of. A hacker would have to get into your computer to access Quicken/MS money databases.

 

[JohnP]

Gerald and AltaRed - Many posters here have indicated that they use the quicken or money software to download details of their accounts from banks, brokerages,  mutual fund houses, etc.  http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=6440.0  and  http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=4025.0

I see this as a potential security breach.  It seems that a good romanian or russian hacker with large capabilities would be very likely to see quicken as a great candidate for a large-scale scam involving all of these accounts;  a couple of ingenious new virii, spyware treats, and pfishing expeditions could set them up for a real big score.   As a result, I do not choose to give quicken the account numbers and passwords of any of our several investment accounts. 

I do use my quicken software to manually keep an accurate track of our accounts.  I use the quicken "online" "One-Step Update" feature only to allow quicken to download the values of the various stock and mutual fund shares so that I can have a current valuation of our holdings.

I do worry about Quicken since they are the biggest guys in town and have the most oppurtunity to compromise our financial security.  I do believe that quicken has a first-rate band of the finest internet security people working these issues but I have some respect for the capabilities of the bad guys also.  Better to be safe than sorry.

JohnP

 

[AltaRed]

I do use my quicken software to manually keep an accurate track of our accounts.  I use the quicken "online" "One-Step Update" feature only to allow quicken to download the values of the various stock and mutual fund shares so that I can have a current valuation of our holdings.

I do worry about Quicken since they are the biggest guys in town and have the most oppurtunity to compromise our financial security.  I do believe that quicken has a first-rate band of the finest internet security people working these issues but I have some respect for the capabilities of the bad guys also.  Better to be safe than sorry.

JohnP

Okay, I missed the point about letting Quicken gather the data. I've never done that mostly because I want to enter the data a certain way with memo items. I actually do the same as you do, manually update Quicken from bank and investment accounts and use One Step Update for prices.