Bank Statements

dafydd said:

Hi Just a short question...
Is it safe to keep bank statements and other financial info on your pc?? What does the forum think Please.....

Sorry if this question is in the wrong place,Feel free to move it.

Thanks sjw

No !
Save them to an external hard drive.

Simple reason :
You must have heard of people hacking into other people's PCs ? Why gamble your security ?

I have backed up information, encrypted and that also is backed up to another drive.

It's a personal decision, however most financial institutions I have accounts with I can typically retrieve info online if necessary. The financial info I store is for quick access only, I also have the paperwork in filing cabinet(s) in the basement.

This notion of Hackers scouting around local neighborhoods to look for PC's to break into is ludicrous, sorry.

Yeah, I know, if you leave yourself open, anyways, I've always found if I see an open network in my area, a simple SSID pwd change will give that unwary neighbor a heads up (as they'll invariably come to me anyways if they can't solve the apparent "hack" of their network. :) )

You are more vulnerable to Malware getting information such as your logons to financial sites if anything, and as others pointed out, the loss of those saved files if the drive is shot/or has to be recovered.

I have them on mine. I'm not sure what all the fear-mongering is about. I also keep them backed up to my NAS and a cloud storage account, but I encrypt them with a password-protected zip-archive.

DeaconFrost said:

I have them on mine. I'm not sure what all the fear-mongering is about. I also keep them backed up to my NAS and a cloud storage account, but I encrypt them with a password-protected zip-archive.

badrobot said:

I ask the same question why some people are so worried about Windows 10 "spying" activities which I don't worry about. I guess we all have different levels of comfort when it comes to our computing activities.

I agree. Everybody's personal information, including a whole lot more information than what is on bank statements, is already on thousands of computers already. I'm likely to be buying a house for the first time next year, which also means I will be itemizing tax deductions for the first time next year. Starting January 1 I plan on gathering all receipts from all family members on a daily basis and scanning them to folders for their tax deduction categories with backup to an external HDD or SSD.

How many people do their taxes online from their home computer? And, let's say you go to H&R block - what do they use to do your taxes? When you go to get your driver's license - what does the state use to generate your driver's license? What does the Federal government use to generate your Social Security Card? What did the bank use to generate that bank statement that you just downloaded online to store on your computer to begin with?

How many people who say "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" do not store financial on your computer will hand their credit card to a waiter/waitress at a restaurant and watch them walk away with it?

I'm a whole lot more concerned about the dang credit card companies sending me "convenience checks" in the mail every dang month....

To add, some should hope hackers see your bank statements, take pity on you and transfer some $$$ into your accounts ... :)