September 17, 2006

Safe, Secure, & Inconvenienced

I sincerely wish Ugly Bogle Kisses & Real Scary Dreams to anyone who has ever spammed, hacked, phished or created a computer virus.

The amount of frustrated time and energy I have spent trying to work with the restrictions forced on our computing experience because of the various internet evil-doers boggles my mind. This is not a good thing, thinking is hard enough without my being boggled.

Sometimes when I can't do something, like shop for clothing, or print to a shared printer, or access a file on another computer on my network, I have the hardest time figuring out WHICH of the several necessary virtual condoms I have installed to blame. Is it my firewall? Is it the other computer's firewall? Is it my browser settings? Is a port closed on the router? All too often, I just give up. I will never be able to share the glorious content of my hard drive via BitTorrent. And the world is the lesser for it. And I really really wanted that yellow blouse but I never could get my laptop to let me do it....mmm I wonder if my check book software is talking to my browser?

Recently I became concerned about the security on my father's computer. He does all of this banking, his massive stock manipulations and his drug purchasing online. Perhaps he would fall prey to some phishing scheme! I know he doesn't read things before clicking.

Or maybe I just wanted another shiny USB device. I was seduced by an article at PCWorld about the ID Guard. The device not only stores your passwords to financial sites in an encrypted format, it connects to an updated list of financial websites. When you want to access your account at any of these sites, you use the list stored on the device, avoiding any chance of mistyping a URL or ending up on some smelly phishy site, ultimately becoming a character on a TV commercial about identity theft.

I wish I had waited for some of the reviews.

The device is cute, and easy enough to install. My father is 79, and he was able to get halfway through the installation (best way to test usability on anything is give it to a senior to set up). He can use it, and he's mostly happy with it.

I bought two, because OF COURSE I needed one myself, to test...and to....yeah, fill a slot in my USB stick case.

I had to uninstall the software-I found it fatally flawed. The software pops up a window whenever you go to a site where it detects a form with a user name and password, and asks you if you would like to use the software to manage your password for this site. It pops up every time. Every single freaking time. On every single page. Yes.

There is a feature which allows you to say, "Nope never" but as far as I can tell, it doesn't respect this per site....yeah. And some sites have a log in form on every page....forums, for example. Experts Exchange a very helpful website. And apparently, every time you shop on Amazon, and check out, you get a different URL, so the ID Guard software does not respect your request to NOT ASK ME IF I WANT TO SAVE MY PASSWORD.

I know I am shouting, but stupid software just does that too me.

I honestly tried to use the thing. One of its greatest features is that you use an onscreen keyboard to type in your username and password, so that keyloggers can't capture your information. Of course, if you are infected by keylogging software, you probably wouldn't think to buy something like ID Guard. See you on TV.

Good if you don't travel a lot on the Internet. Recommended for the extra paranoid who don't mind being inconvenienced.

Fills a slot in my case.

Posted by Trigger Tech at September 17, 2006 8:53 PM Permalink

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