Windows 10: Bank Statements

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

:)

 

bank statements

No help there.

 

bank statements

I discovered the answer in another unrelated chat. "..." provides the option of opening in Internet Explorer, rather than

Edge. Printing is then available without having to save the page as a document first.

 

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 ?

 

How is an external HD any better? In fact its less secure and can be lost or stolen with all your details on it unless the drive is encrypted I would not consider using a portable storage device.

 

I have 4 drives on my PC but no financial statements stored anywhere on them...

 

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. *Smile )

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.

 

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 ... *Smile

 

I don't think it's all about getting your money. Some just steals your identity so they can make illegal transactions for their own benefit. And if they get busted, authorities go after the wrong person. And this is exactly why we all have differences in opinion. Some think about stealing money. Some think about identity theft. I am thinking about the latter. Here in Canada, once someone got hold of your Social Insurance Number (SIN), you are done. It doesn't matter if you have money or not. Never mind the credit card info because you can always dispute whatever purchases you did not make. And credit card companies are very smart these days. They will block your credit card even with a slight abnormal purchase activity (even if you did it yourself.. happened to me before).

 

Very true, although I find it funny these days that I have to give more identification of myself at the bank to make a deposit than to withdraw, what, it's like someone else is really going to go wire money in? The Nigerians with that settlement/estate payoff? *Smile

 

My thoughts are this, you can keep anything on your HOME PC as long as you keep it secure. I sure wouldn't keep documents like that on a laptop.

 

I agree! In fact, I'd immediately Copy any important files to a USB Thumb drive and/or Copy them to a CD or DVD for archival storage then delete from the HDD including emptying the Recycle Bin. Some folks even use a program that does a secure wipe of free space on the HDD although in most cases simply defragmenting with move enough files around to cover what was there [maybe TRIM on an SSD].