How secure is your data?

As soon as you connect internet to your desktop, your computer becomes vulnerable to cyber attack. And to prevent the computer from this kind of attack, you install internet security on your desktop. You know this truth very well. I have Kaspersky installed in my computer.

I think it is necessary to have internet security installed in your computer, because several times I found that the security software is capable to block fishing and malicious link from opening in your browser. It works in my computer.

I bought my computer in 2010 and since then I have been using internet security to prevent the system from cyber-attack. In spite of that, in 2016, someone tried to access my bank account using my credentials. But he failed to login the account because he managed to get my user id but couldn’t get password. He tried three times and gave wrong password, causing my internet banking access facility blocked for 24 hours. I came to know about it, when I got SMS for every transaction.

I instantly went to ATM and withdrew my entire fund. Then I talked with customer care executive. He told me “don’t worry! Your account is safe. Your internet banking facility is blocked for security purpose. After 24 hours, you will need to change your login credentials to get the internet banking feature live again.”

I don’t know how my user id was exposed at that time. I remember that I used to login my bank account by opening the website URL on my computer’s browser. Internet security was also active and working. So, the theft of login credentials from my computer was not so easy. Still I can’t say anything. It may have been stolen from my computer.

After reading a today’s news, it seems that cyber-attack is possible even you have internet security installed in your computer. Your sensitive data is unsafe.

Over 100 Google Chrome extensions, downloaded almost 33 million times, were stealing sensitive data from their users, according to cyber security researchers from Awake Security.

Source: https://decrypt.co/33229/malicious-chrome-extensions-are-still-a-problem

Now you can imagine that how many users would have lost their sensitive data because of installing malicious extensions. It is really very dangerous. I use both the browsers - Chrome and Firefox. Though I review all the downloadable file and extensions before installing them in the system, but mistakes can be possible.

However, I have very few extensions installed in my browser. I read several posts on hive before installing Hive keychain in Firefox. I wanted to be sure that I was downloading right extension.

In most cases, your internet security will warn you if the downloadable file or extension is malicious. In my case, I always get the warning message, if I try to open any malicious site. Kaspersky blocks the site from opening and shows the warning message on the browser. If you see this type of warning message while opening any site in your browser, you must check genuineness of the site before you open it.

If you want to keep your wallet keys in any password manager, then you should change your decision. According to sourced article, Someone has already lost 12 bitcoin worth $113,000. He downloaded and installed the keep key Bitcoin client in his computer. As soon as he entered his seed or recovery phrase, his entire amount was withdrawn from the wallet. His only mistake was that he downloaded a malicious version of bitcoin client from the Google Chrome store. Kaspersky currently provides password manager, but I prefer to keep my entire keys in external hard drive or pen drive. Better if you write down the keys in your diary and keep it in safe place. In my opinion, this is the safest way to store your keys and passwords.