Maximum PC

Using Linux to do banking online..... Is this really safer? it was suggested in one of the MaxPC issues (may a month or two ago). Reason I'm asking is because I'm always looking for safer ways to bank online. That and apparently after some update about six months ago from ESET, I can no longer access my primary bank's online banking system. I can access other bank's online banking system, just not my "primary" bank's system, and it has something to do with ESET. Because when I disable ESET completely (or worse yet, uninstall it) it works fine. I don't have this problem on any other computer I have (except for most of them run Norton, or something else). It worked OK up until about six months ago, when one day it wouldn't work any more after I did some updates for ESET.

anyway, that's not the point of this thread... I'm just more or less curious about the safety while using a LInux Live CD versus a normal Windows-based (or Mac-based) computer?

It won't be any more or less safe to do banking online.

Your bank requires a certain level of encryption .. whatever tools you use to provide that encryption are fine.

OK, but do Linux OS live CDs generally have some sort of AV installed, or is this not much of an issue on Linux-based Oses?

It isn't a problem with unix-based OSes

I remember the article from the security issue and the main point behind it is that the entire session is erased when you restart the system and with most people being as sloppy as they are about security, it is a pretty simple thing for them to use something like this.

I guess in light of truly being vigilant about security, it's decent thing to do....With the way I think, I'm not sure one can say that running a linux livecd is any better then using a BartPE disk, or even running the Linux CD within a VM.

In any case, if your account is compromised, it's not going to make a damned bit of difference what you're running

Well, I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to things like banking online (which I ONLY do from home... not even from the little "Cyber Cafe" some banks have). That and I never use public wifi in any place to do anything, even surf the web. The only time I'd do that is if I was using someone elses' computer and I was just doing things like google searching or reading new articles online (nothing that could be tracked back to me).

Virii could still be an issue...

Unnecessarily paranoid. An open wi-fi connection isn't really that big of a deal if you are using your own computer. The traffic should still be encrypted between you and your bank.

I'm still not a big fan of public (unsecured) wifi... anything more than web browsing I will never do). I really don't even like using Wifi that much at home either (simply because of the speed for what I'm doing, plus the whole thing with security... I guess in the end I'm just a bit old fashioned (I like wired networks wireless). Yes they're nice for when a wired network isn't really feasible (such as in an older bigger home).

Theoretically, yes. In practice, no.

He could still spread a virus. Just because the PC itself isn't likely to see an infection it doesn't mean he couldn't be a carrier.

If it doesn't affect me, I don't care.

I've accessed my bank using a Linux live cd with no problems. Of course this was on my own computer, not a public one, and a hard wire to the router, not wifi. YMMV

Linux doesn't make online banking more secure. Period.