(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi, I'm new to the forum. Are older versions of puppy any less secure than the latest? I have an older version(about a year and a half) with sea monkey on it. I am letting a friend use it on a five year old compaq with incredibly slow XP. He and I were amazed at how incredibly fast puppy ran. He wants it for surfing and emai. So does he need to upgrade? He seems perfectly happy with this older version.
Mike

I would say the issue of security would have a lot to do with what version of browser and E-mail program you use. The newer versions of these programs have security updates for known problems.

Woof Woof

here it is no matter of OS, but ONLY of SOFTWARE

and software can be upgraded, I recommend using a portable version, when it is possible

see here for firefox portable

HowTo: Make Firefox Portable

Thanks for the replies. He uses yahoo for e-mail and I don"t know what version of sea monkey it is. It is probably more secure than IE. No?

A portable firefox sounds like a good idea.

mazway wrote:It is probably more secure than IE. No?

The best security add on for IE is its removal.

Just do a web search to find out more.

Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf from the Computer Crime Investigation Unit told the hearing that he uses two rules to protect himself from cyber-criminals when banking online. The first rule, he said, was to never click on hyperlinks to the banking site and the second was to avoid Microsoft Windows. "If you are using the internet for a commercial transaction, use a Linux boot up disk - such as Ubuntu or some of the other flavours. Puppylinux is a nice small distribution that boots up fairly quickly. It gives you an operating system which is perfectly clean and operates only in the memory of the computer and is a perfectly safe way of doing internet banking," van der Graaf said.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/157767,ns ... nking.aspx


Inspector Bruce
Recommends Puppy

I only use puppy, but I have been stung thrice, by unauthorised banking transactions. No idea how it happened...phishing? Twice bank reimbursed me, last time amount was paltry so didn't worry. (Firewall enabled of course)

muggins,

The last one may just have been a "test transaction" before removing a larger amount. Might be best to mention it to your bank?

I don't do any online banking so I know that all those dodgy e-mails are dodgy!

Oh, and buy a tinfoil hat.

drongo

Drongo,

whoops, wrong terminology on my part, It wasn;t phishing as, of course, I've never responded to dodgy emails, Rather I had amounts deducted somehow "behind" legitimate transactions. The funny thing is that they could have taken larger amounts, but didn't. Maybe thinking I wouldn't notice the illegitimate transactions.

Bank was advised of this, and reimbursed me in two cases. I don't think I will be "touched" again as now using a debit account for online bill paying, only putting money in account to cover whatever bill is.

My story:

(a) Some time back, I was thinking of buying something at a certain wesite, so I decided to register there.
But the site was asking that I give my full bank account details just to register.

(b) I phoned a representative for the website to discuss it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the time I used a special banking security program on my Win2000Pro OS.
It was the only one of its kind in the UK...
Supplied by Cahoot; named their "Webcard" program.
When at a website making a purchase I'd click on the program icon in the system tray and it would use a secure connection to go to the banking server to fetch a 0ne-off virtual bank debit card.
This was only good for 1 transaction, and I could specify a limit slightly greater than the transaction amount, that could not be exceeded.
Once used it was no longer usable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He said that as soon as I registerd with the site, they would take a very small sum from the account [to check it was genuine and functional], then immediately pay it back.
So I suggested to him that I should use the "Webcard" program, and I'd be protected.
At first he said that would be OK, but then said it wasn't functioning.

(c) So I phoned my bank to say that this site was telling me the bank wasn't paying out.
They said that's because...
When they see a small sum being taken from a bank account...
This looks to them to be a thief testing the account prior to robbing it.
So it is automatically blocked.

(d) Can't remember if I actually went ahead with the whole business.
Yes I did...
But didn't register.
Didn't use the "Webcard"...
Only worked by PC, not over the phone.
Gave my card details verbally by phone.
The Webcard service was eventually withdrawn by Cahoot, and Cahoot was taken over by Santander.

Dingo wrote:Woof Woof

here it is no matter of OS, but ONLY of SOFTWARE

and software can be upgraded, I recommend using a portable version, when it is possible

see here for firefox portable

HowTo: Make Firefox Portable

Good thread, and thanks for the link! I'm going to be using it in Puppy soon and perhaps in other distros too.

Cheers,

CP .

Really older versions are fine, just update seamonkey or Firefox to the latest version, update Openssl and gnutls if it has it and that's it, most puppies don't have gnutls. Then you'll having nothing to worry about, really the way that puppy is made running live or frugal you should be fine without it, but just in case.
ttuuxxx

Re: muggins banking comments

I only ever load up a fresh puppy, using pfix=ram
then do my transaction, clear the browser cache, then reboot
It gives the least opportunity for card info to get snagged, AFAIK
Touch wood, never had a problem

Aitch

Apologies for not having read the thread properly, but I didn't see that the OP was talking about a Puppy a year and a half old. To me that isn't old; I'm typing and posting this in a Puppy about the same age (4.20 Deeper Thought) and AFAIK it's fine.