Just need to vent. Our lives are now overly secure!

[Dogman]

Posting this in the Off Topic forum because it's totally off topic from anything photographic. I'm just livid and frustrated this morning. Here's the long sad story, shortened and edited for a family site. Expect typos ahead.

We have a checking account at the bank where our house is mortgaged. We seldom use it for writing checks/debit cards, we just maintain it with money to automatically pay the mortgage every month. Since we don't use the account much, we haven't logged into it to check the balance in...well, a very long time. This morning we wanted to see how much money we had there. It's something people like to know. Money. So I go to log on and I couldn't remember the user name. Luckily I saved that and the password in my phone so I started the process. But wait! The username and password are not enough. Now they must send us a multi digit code to access our account. The problem is the phone numbers they have for texting us are incorrect--one is our old home number and we both now use cell phones and they don't have eith of those numbers. The other is a number neither my wife nor I have ever heard of. Picked out of the cyberspace I guess--not anything to do with us--thank you virtual assistant. So I ask for the code to be sent by email. Easy enough. We have email too...we're really into this tech stuff, you know. So the cyber digits come in the mail. Eventually. They took their time sending them. Snail mail? Really? Glad we weren't in a hurry or anything. Go back to the bank's site to put in the numbers and they've timed out and closed the session. I reopen and go through the process and enter the numbers we were sent but, oh no, they are not valid anymore. They must do it again. So we try again and, yep, again the session closed out before we ever got the freakin' code.

Did ya ever consider that things are getting impossible? Can't get to your own money because it's kept so safely. Can't open the pack of medicine you need to live because it's so securely wrapped. Can't read the instruction book to your TV set because of the safety warnings ("Where's the damn ON switch? The game started five minutes ago!.) And then they intrust us compete bleedin' idiots with three ton missiles called automobiles that have every device imaginable implanted on the dashboard to distract us from driving. Okay, okay. I'm getting off Off Topic.

Oh yeah. While I'm just finishing this overly long meaningless missive, Verizon sent me an email that they've just updated their privacy policy. I'll have to go to their website to read it but first I'll need to be fluent in legalize. And by the time I finish reading the thing, it will be out of date and a new privacy policy will be issued. Just so I'm secure and safe, you know.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chuckroast]

Part of my professional life has been in Cyber Security. Trust me when I tell you that there are many legitimate reasons for this sort of multi-factor authentication. The sophistication of current attack is like nothing I've ever seen before. The new attackers have been weaponized with AI-enabled logic that does all manner of evil to thwart things like CAPTCHA puzzles and so on. Without things like two-factor and regular forced complex passkeys/password rotation, the Bad Guys would just walk into your account and rob you blind.

There are several ways you can set up a phone number that never changes. Just set up a free internet based Voice Over IP (VOIP) number. The easiest would be to set up a Google Voice number. It's free and the only requirement is that you actually use the number every few months. I fulfill this by having my Google Voice number text a message to my real cell phone now and then.

You then hand out your VOIP number as your preferred number for multi-factor authentication. No matter what cell number you actually use, the Google Voice number never changes. You can even set it up so that calls to the Google Voice number will be forwarded to your "real" cell phone.

 

[nightlight]

Did ya ever consider that things are getting impossible?

Yes.

 

[Rayt]

Now days area codes and landline don’t matter and your mobile phone number can be permanent even if you switch providers. It’s a pain but there are bad people out there.

 

[Archiver]

@chuckroast - I watch a number of tech YouTube channels that report on developments in AI, crypto and hacking like Upper Echelon and Jack Rhysider. It's both informative and useful because it helps keep me abreast of all the new methods that scammers are using to try to steal credentials and hack accounts everywhere. I also regularly get updates from Forbes with articles by Zack Doffman etc about the latest darkweb credential leak. Frankly, it's nuts. I cannot imagine how people who aren't reasonably tech-savvy cope with this.

@Dogman - yes, things are becoming more difficult, and unfortunately they have to be, because criminals are getting more sophisticated. There are hacks where just opening a dodgy email can trigger something like a spy pixel, a single pixel image which sends back data regarding you IP address, the time you opened the email, and other identifying data. Tip: configure your email browser so it does not automatically load images to avoid such things.

 

[JeffS7444]

As longtime I.T. person, folks are sometimes surprised at how un-wired my personal life is. But services need at least occasional attention, devices need firmware updates, and "free" always has a cost, and many products and services are keen to broadcast their (and your) presence to the world. So where it's still practical to do so, I'm willing to forego a bit of convenience (thanks, I don't want eerily accurate shopping/movie/music recommendations), I get my amusement in subverting the broadcasts a little bit.

 

[chuckroast]

As longtime I.T. person, folks are sometimes surprised at how un-wired my personal life is. But services need at least occasional attention, devices need firmware updates, and "free" always has a cost, and many products and services are keen to broadcast their (and your) presence to the world. So where it's still practical to do so, I'm willing to forego a bit of convenience (thanks, I don't want eerily accurate shopping/movie/music recommendations), I get my amusement in subverting the broadcasts a little bit.

+1

 

[DownUnder]

Welcome to life in the Century 21 real world. Complexities and complications are now what it's all about, if only to ensure well paid employment to a whole lot of otherwise unemployable overqualified (and sadly, many clueless about anything common-sensical) so-called experts.

My bugbear is with my bank, a rebadged credit union based in Melbourne. Last year they went top level security with an outside agency (owned and operated from India as I've recently learned) that immediately imposed a whole schlew of new and annoying security measures.

THREE times so far this year I've had a Visa debit card grabbed by third-party banks in Indonesia. This happens on weekends when I want to draw funds from bank ATMs in shopping malls, which I've now learned the hard way to not to in favour of going directly to in-bank ATMs so friendly but underpaid Indonesian security guards can watch me as I punch in the required information and draw my several millions (alas, in Indonesian rupiahs, not dollars) for my week's expenses.

Fortunately I'm now better organised. I have a second Visa card from my bank AND other accounts with two Visa cards with a competing bank. Which I intend to move all my funds to (the second bank, that is) when I'm again back in AUS.

This is a lose-lose for me, and who knows what the banks get out of it as I get all my replacement card fees refunded anyway., if many months later Maybe it's to keep a few odd bods behind bank counters and off the streets...

I no longer use ATMs in shopping malls. Only at bank branch ATMs where the security is much better.

I also keep a cash-stash of dollars at home, securely put away in a place any Indonesian crim who decides to break into my little hacienda in the suburbs won't think of looking for. Nobody has as yet. Only the banks do me in. And the Australian banks at that, not the Indonesian ones.

It's all a lost cause karma wheel. Annoying.

Thanks for reading through this diatribe, everyone. I do feel (a little) better for having written it...

 

[Archiver]

@DownUnder I don't travel overseas anywhere near as much as you seem to, and the few times I do, I contact the bank and let them know I will be in X country between dates Y and Z. Credit card use has given me no issues, nor drawing cash at an official bank ATM, thank goodness. This was some years ago, so I don't know what the situation would be now.

 

[DownUnder]

@DownUnder I don't travel overseas anywhere near as much as you seem to, and the few times I do, I contact the bank and let them know I will be in X country between dates Y and Z. Credit card use has given me no issues, nor drawing cash at an official bank ATM, thank goodness. This was some years ago, so I don't know what the situation would be now.

I do the same. But I'm too mean to use credit cards for drawing cash or even purchases in those Asian countries I spend time in - Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia. The fees would bankrupt me.

One of the two banks I deal with in Melbourne kindly refund me all my overseas transaction charges. I came to them late in the piece, which means I gave the bank I'm currently starting to separate myself from too much of my hard-earned loot and it's time I looked out for myself. Old dogs, new tricks.

A few weeks ago I went to a money changer in Surabaya - not in Bali, never ever do this in Bali, if you do then don't say I didn't warn you! - to change a few hundred in Aussie cash I had with me. And learned to my dismay that the daily rate this changer gave was in fact better than the bank where I use the ATMs, and no commission or service charge. I got a whopping' 7 cents more on every dollar, which as the farmers say, ain't hay.

Some Asian countries charge ridiculously high service fees. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Brunei. Oh, and Singapore. The fees in Bangkok are highest, Singapore's the second highest. Malaysia and Indonesia, about 5%-6%, but the ringgit and rupiah floats up and down so much, and varies by so much, that any fee I have to say is often as not offset by a better exchange rate. And my new bank refunds me any additional fees paid. So it's a win-win for me.

Century 21 tourism is all about herding you to all the once-enjoyable tourist spots like a flock of sheep, and picking your pockets while they do it. The back blocks and backwaters of where I travel are far more interesting places, and offer superior photo opportunities.

 

[Rayt]

I use the American Express Green Card for overseas because they don’t charge any fee and the exchange rate is same as XE.com.

 

[Richard G]

I now use 2FA login for RFF so my account is not hacked and I can be sure only my pictures get posted and only my rude comments get posted. A large superannuation fund in Australia had money stolen from members recently. They had not yet offered a 2 factor authentication security step. Fror years I have built large balances in two funds, defying all the fast advice that I’m losing on fees. Diversification. And my financial adviser just advised me that it’s perfect for maximizing inheritance for my children.

 

[Richard G]

A bit over a decade ago:

[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Richard G​

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Local time12:20 AMJoinedFeb 28, 2009Messages7,027
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• Dec 14, 2013
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• #7

1. Don't buy the Monochrom, your M9 will get lonely.
2. Don't order the iPad air engraved with your name and phone number for free.
3. Don't launch the camera in the iPad air.
4. If the camera is crooked and as expected, on your early morning visit to the Genius Bar in the Apple Store, they don't have a replacement with the same size storage, wait till they have. Don't take up their offer to email you a self-addressed mailing label to send from your office the faulty hardware so they can send you a new engraved iPad in the post.
5. Don't take the opportunity to get your car washed at that Westfield shopping centre, or give them your mobile number so they can SMS you when it's ready.
6. Don't buy a coffee with your remaining coins while you wait.
7. Don't return to the Apple Store.
8. If you return to the Apple Store don't buy a new iPhone 5S 64G outright so your son can have your iPhone 4 now his HTC is dying, not quite so soon as expected.
9. When you go to the Telstra store for the nano SIM don't listen to the Telstra people when they tell you their iPhone 5S on your plan is cheaper and also unlocked.
10. Don't let them insert the SIM in the shop and link to your Cloud account, instantly updating your contacts, @mac.com mail, including the email receipt for the iPhone 5S unopened in your bag.
11. Don't hope that the email receipt for the Apple Store bought phone will be on your new phone already, or think that your old phone could display the same email without 3G as they can link it to their WiFi. Don't smile or wish them a nice day as they refund you your money.
12. Don't call AppleCare when your old phone doesn't back up right.
13. Don't call again and let Alvin from the Philippines see your desktop remotely to help you set up the new phone.
14. When you go to meet your wife and children for lunch and you find a metered parking spot next to her car, but of course now have no coins (see 6 above) just risk the ticket.
15. If you didn't do that, go to the 7-11 to buy chewing gum for the change.
16. If you didn't do that, download the app advertised on the sign and pay electronically.
17. DO NOT throw up your hands at your digital Saturday morning and get back in the car and drive three blocks and park for 2 hours for free.
18. Do not take the Monochrom out of the car and take two photos you would otherwise have missed parking so close to the cafe.

I swear, that was not quite all of my Saturday morning yesterday. Later I updated my photographic notebook, mischievously labelled on the spine "Off Photography" with my M800 Pelikan fountain pen. I should have read another chapter of War and Peace (an actual book here.)

 

[agentlossing]

As a banker, I always advise to keep your contact information absolutely up-to-date with your bank.

 

[JeffS7444]

If you already have a brokerage account with them, Charles Schwab also offers banking services, including a debit card and free printed checks. Out-of-network charges are reimbursed, and IIRC, so are those associated with currency exchange. The only thing weakness that I've discovered is that you can't make deposits to a Schwab account via ATM. But I have not needed to test their security measures for fraudulent charges, whereas Bank of America's credit card security has spared me some grief over the years.

I favor DuckDuckGo as my web browser and search engine, and Protonmail for email.

Apple has some of the industry's best privacy policies, particularly for mobile devices (#2 after Nintendo?). But 3rd party apps can be a mixed bag, so I'll generally only grant these access to basic services they need to function, and I delete apps I haven't used for awhile.

Save a bit of time by logging onto new services with an Apple/Google/Facebook account? Nope, why should I make the job of the data aggregator easier than it already is? Remember that your personal data has helped to build some of the wealthiest companies that have ever existed on this planet! Small wonder that some of these very same companies are also investing heavily into AI, which will help them to get inside your head more effectively than ever before.

I have a "smart" TV and ensmartened disc player, and occasionally plug them into ethernet to check for updates. But I don't keep them connected to the internet, nor do I use any of their built-in streaming services, as I have an AppleTV for that.

Once upon a time, I was disappointed that I couldn't get a new notebook PC which supported Windows Hello facial-recognition login, but in retrospect, I'm glad I didn't, because Microsoft stores biometric data in their cloud, and can/will use it elsewhere.