Am I fully protected

madaminx

My bank offered it's customers free software Trusteer Rapport, which I have downloaded and I also use Microsoft Security Essentials whilst surfing on IE 9.

Am I fully protected?

Thanks

M

NiftyDigits

Because the bank offered it you installed it??

I certainly didn't and won't.

macman

Rapport is itself spyware, get rid of it.

madaminx

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Because the bank offered it you installed it??

I certainly didn't and won't.

Please explain and what is my alternative ?

Thanks

madaminx

macman wrote: »

Rapport is itself spyware, get rid of it.

I'm not an expert so what is my alternative?

Tah

kwikbreaks

Simple - the alternative is to not install Rapport.

madaminx

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Simple - the alternative is to not install Rapport.

Thanks. Planning to uninstall tonight, glad I asked. Do I need additional protection to Microsoft Sec Essentials or would that be enough?

Thanks

kwikbreaks

IMO it is possible to put far too much protection software on a machine to the point where it can become slow and unstable.

No amount of security will help if you yourself install malware inadvertently while installing some wanted piece of software - for instance all sorts of freeware includes the Ask toolbar and resets the default search. There is usually an option to avoid installing these and in any event they can be manually uninstalled with no lasting harm.

Unfortunately there are other less scrupulous installs that plant adware on the machine without asking. Sometimes legitimate pages get hacked with scripts that can install malware just by visiting the page. Some may be blocked by security software but I don't doubt some will get through.

So what to do? Well I live with just MS Security Essentials and the standard firewall. I'm wary of installing freeware that I haven't seen recommended and keep an eye on the behaviour of my browser. I have accidentally installed the Ask toolbar in the past and just yesterday when looking for something to rotate a video clip managed to get something else installed that was highlighting text with links to popup adverts - I didn't bother investigating that one I just used system restore to go back a couple of days. I've since found that VLC which I already have installed can rotate video clips albeit in a very longwinded way so used that instead - the junk I downloaded didn't work anyway.

penrhyn

I see that Trusteer has been bought by IBM. They must think there is some value in it, can't see it myself.

macman

madaminx wrote: »

I'm not an expert so what is my alternative?

Tah

You don't need an alternative. If you have an up to date secure browser, OS and firewall, that should be sufficient, along with a decent AV program of course.
Rapport is itself a keylogger.
The greatest aid to staying secure online is of course common sense. Most of the malware I remove has been installed by people who just blithely click on things wthout even attempting to check what they are agreeing to.

macman

penrhyn wrote: »

I see that Trusteer has been bought by IBM. They must think there is some value in it, can't see it myself.

However they seem to have persuaded almost every High St bank otherwise. Every time I log into my Santander or cahoot account I'm pestered to install the bl**dy thing, and there's no way of permanently declining the offer.