OT: Halifax online banking and reformatting drive

[Pete Davis]

My brother wants me to reformat his laptop and return it to factory settings. He banks with Halifax and is slightly worried that something is going to go awry with his online banking.

With both of us being 'silver surfers' I just wanted to ask if anyone knows of any 'gotcha' that may cause us problems.

Common sense tells me that all his details are held at the bank's end and nothing on his laptop. After all, one of the benefits of online banking is that basically, you can access your account from any internet-connected computer in the world, none of which will have any of his details on, but I just want to be sure before I take the plunge.

Does anyone know if Halifax put anything on the local machine or am I safe to do a factory reset and know he'll still be able to get into his bank when I've finished?

Thanks

[Richard Tobin]

That's right.

It's possible that he has told the browser on his computer to remember his account or customer number, but that's just a convenience to save him from having to type it in each time.

If he really wants to make sure, he could try accessing his account from a different computer - yours perhaps - before zapping the laptop.

-- Richard

[Tim Streater]

Depends if, when using it for online banking, he ticked something that said "Remember my details" or similar. Meaning he could, on his next login, skip a step or two because that info would be stored on his laptop.

What does "reformat his laptop" mean to you, anyway? If you really reformat the disk, you'll have to reinstall the OS. Is that what you want to do? You probably want to reset the browser. Occasionally I clear out the cookies and some other settings in Safari when I have a look at what's there and see stuff put there by some unlikely websites. You'd much better start by finding out how to clear stuff out in your browser.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Pete Davis writes

I shouldn't think for a moment that they would do this. As you say, you would have problems if you accessed your online bank account from a different/new computer. I've done this, and certainly not experienced any problems. However, now you've got me wondering about things like automagically-entered remembered passwords - which you're sometimes warned about not using if you're not using your home PC.

>

[Pete Davis]

Pete Davis used his keyboard to write :

Thank you Richard and Tim. No, he really does want a factory reset done. The machine is about four years old and has built up loads of rubbish over that time and is running fairly slowly. He has all the original installation discs for stuff that he's installed and has got backups of anything important, so he sees a factory reset as the quickest way of improving things.

Our only concern was the bank, but I feel confident that we can now go ahead and do it (he has his login details, so that's ok), so thanks again chaps.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I doubt any bank does anything like this. Too easy to get the details - even if an HD has been reformatted.

[Tim Watts]

Using a different browser would be enough - or just put Chrome into "incognito mode".

[Toby]

Other than making sure you have backed up any documents or other personal data first, then there is no reason that reinstalling the machine would have a negative effect on the on-line banking.

Once it has been restored, then your first stop should be to install all the windows updates if it is running windows, there will be loads, and it will take you ages, but should really be done first.

Install some anti-virus software on the machine too, I use the free version of Avast, and it seems fine.

Halifax may offer a free "premium" anti-virus to its customers, so I suggest you investigate that first, before installing Avast, or another free one.

[Tim Watts]

RBS used to require you register every PC (back in the days when it used ActiveX -spit).

But not anymore...

[nemo]

Some banks try to foist the installation of Trusteer Rapport clutterware onto online users' PCs. If Halifax does that, it will try again when you next logon after a factory reset - it isn't necessary for online banking access and serves no useful purpose, just say no.

[stuart noble]

Can't beat a bit of colonic irrigation!

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Which OS? Are you really happy to have to install the OS and all his apps again, and have to apply all the vendor fixes as well? It sounds like a hell of a lot of work.

What, and why? It'd be better to find out if there's a reason for the worry? Does he think he's got a malware infection? Does he run decent anti-virus, anti-spyware etc? If he's got an infection, it might affect the backups and you could after a lot of reinstalls find yourself back in the same position.

If he uses a password manager app, or the same facility built-in to eg Firefox, make sure he has a backup of that or he'll lose every password.

Correct, but he might have chosen to download files of financial transaction data (often called 'Excel' files, but maybe just CSV or TSV data).

They won't have put anything on it, but they may have encouraged him to install something called Trusteer Rapport, which is meant to add another layer of security to online banking. If you trust it. (And it has a bad reputation for interfering with other software.) Having it should actually stop you reformatting/reinstalling stuff.

[cl]

I never, ever save passwords on my PC. If it gets stolen then someone doesn't just have your PC, they have your passwords.

[Theo Markettos]

A few do the 'we haven't seen you login from this machine before so we'll send you a text', but Halifax isn't one of them. I think Tesco does. (Tesco's signin interface also was/is in Flash, which is almost as spit-worthy)

Theo

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Oops. That should be "Having it should NOT actually stop...".

[Jethro_uk]

Nationwide issue a card reader which uses your Debit card and PIN to produce a code to login. It's also impossible to transfer money out of your account to a new payee without needing such a code. I suspect that any "unusual" transfers would also mandate a code, as I was asked for one recently when I tried to setup a new payment to a previously registered account.

[Davidm]

I use Halifax online banking and have never been asked to install Trusteer Rapport. It's Santander that keep nagging me to install that, and I never have and never will!

I've changed PCs twice and never had a problem with Halifax, Santander or Nationwide, although the Santander login process did ask the first time on each new PC for the answer to one of the "secret security" questions because it didn't recognise the PC I was signing in from, so make sure he knows that information.

[Jethro_uk]

So where *do* you save your password ;)

[cl]

In an encrypted file kept separate.

[Richard Tobin]

You will also of course have to re-install all the operating system updates there have been in the last four years.

-- Richard