General Security?

[Michael DeBusk]

John C. Harper wrote:

> Is there any danger that my financial information can be accessed by 
> others? I would like to take prudent, but not necessarily extreme, 
> precautions.

You can't make intrusion impossible, but the more difficult you make it
the less likely it'll be.

Unless you need to access your computer remotely, there is no reason to
leave it connected or even turned on. Someone would have to kick in your
door to get to it if it were not on or online.

Others have mentioned a good firewall and encryption for those times
when you are on and connected. Those are good too.

I use all three. I disconnect when not using Internet, I have iptables
set up, and I keep my GnuCash working directory in a 25-megabyte
Truecrypt container. (It was 16 megs, but I filled it.)

I also back up the Truecrypt container three ways. I copy it to a
different filename in the same directory (in case I screw it up and want
to revert easily), to a flash drive dedicated to that purpose (with a
copy of Truecrypt for Windows on it as well), and with my regular backup
of my home directory.

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