OK. I guess you must be using Windows then. I don't, so the issue doesn't arise here.
If you're going to that trouble, I'd say you want to not just reformat, but also write zeroes everywhere on the disk (if your bro ever sells the laptop, he should *definitely* do that).
And probably find it's now as slow as before you started...
Do all these companies now use usb keypad things? One issue and the main reason I declined internet banking was that often these little gizmos have a display, which is not readable by blind people. as the adding of speech takes time this had not been done at the time. anyone know if its ok now?
Brian
In message , Tim Streater writes
If you are desperately worried about security, there are lots of freeware utilities that allow you to boot off a CD, and well-and-truly wipe your C-drive.
After that, it's just a case of re-installing the operating system. With a virgin OS installed, you'll probably find that the computer will go like greased lightning.
For XP, before you start make sure you have downloaded SP2 and SP3, from the MS website (although SP2 will probably come as one of the updates). IIRC, you'll need to allow it to upgrade OE6 to OE8 before you can install SP3. It might be advantageous to have downloaded a copy of Windows Update Agent (which, about a year ago, was essential to do allow updates - but recently doesn't seem necessary). After you've got all this lot up and running, several more updates will keep coming in.
Windows 7 doesn't seem to have any problems. You just let it do the updates. Don't know about Vista.
Which will slow the machine right down again. I tried this with an old laptop of my fathers. Reformatted the hard disk and reinstalled from scratch. Once all the security updates had been installed it was as slow as when my father gave up on it.
Jonathan
If you are that worried about security, then you'd be better off destroying the drive.
In message , Brian Gaff writes
In terms of speech, not that I am aware of no.
We have account with Nationwide, Smile and First direct. Nationwide and Smile both use the same sort of little calculator style card readers, which is used by some of the other banks.
Nationwide can provide one with larger keys and display, for partially sighted users, but no speech output yet (expensive I guess).
First direct has something different that was recently introduced. however that is my wifes account, so I'm not sure about how she has to use that.
I don't need to use my reader for day to day banking, I can login without using it (smile don't bother at all for login, Nationwide have the option of using the reader or a text based login)
I can make transfers and payments that are already setup. But if I want to pay a new payee, or setup another standing order etc. then I need to use it.
I presume you're not being serious. While there are some pundits who will tell you that the state security services can forensically recover long-erased data from a well-wiped disk, from other equally-credible sources I am led to understand that this is just simply FUD.
My techie mate says Windows gets bigger and bigger with every update so more RAM is a must
Even if it isn't FUD it would be *incredibly* expensive, so why would anyone bother? Your banking details (or whatever) aren't worth that much.
something
Antivirus protection is active.
I hope the OS is not XP because it is no longer supported and the updates are not available.
Quite. I've certainly read that sophisticated (and expensive) forensics are needed to recover anything even remotely useful after even a single good wipe. [Of course, some might say "They would say that, wouldn't they!"]
BTW, CCleaner has a disk wiping utility (under 'Tools'). You can do 1,3,
7 or 35 passes. I reckon that if your disk isn't totally worn out after 35 passes, that will probably be good enough! However, you'll obviously not be able to wipe your C-drive in situ. There IS a portable version of CCleaner, which you can put on an external drive, CD, DVD, USB stick etc, but I don't know if you can make them bootable.MiniTool Partition Wizard has a portable version which you certainly CAN run from a bootable CD. One of its many functions is wiping disks (several options, including up to 7 passes). You can therefore wipe your C-drive in situ (just make sure that you're OK about re-installing a new OS).
In message , Lawrence writes
They most certainly ARE. All the updates until the cut-off date still happen (about 200 of them!) - plus quite a lot of additional fixes since then.
Santander don't use a keypad.
Buy a tablet.
And?
What's age got to do with it? It doesn't make you stupid and you've got experience to add to ability!
====snip====
+1Even the old HDDs using FDD derived technology used sidetrim erase when overwriting existing data. A simple "LLF" of the drive (writing nothing but zeroes to each sector) is more than enough to wipe out the old data on even the oldest of HDDs.
More recent HDD designs with their giant magnetoresistive heads and PMR data recovery read techniques where such security compromising redundency has been all used up in the name of maximising the effective arial density of the media make such recovery methods totally impractical.
At best, from the security services PoV, they might just be able to find sufficient evidence using special clean room techniques and atomic force microscopes to find evidence of terrorist activities if they can justify the million pounds price tag on such exercises.
Unless you have such secrets to hide, a simple zeroing of the sectors using the drive manufacturer's diagnostic testing utility will be more than sufficient.
Unless you have terrorist related activities to hide, a single zeroing pass will be more than sufficient.
They do exist, eg:
Other banks use codes by phone/SMS, First Direct/HSBC have their own keypad system. Some business banking uses other code dongles.
Theo
I think they're keen to avoid any connection (USB or otherwise) from the keypad to the computer and keep it as a separate, second factor device.
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