Advice Request Help with using a VM to improve my security

[jetman]

Hi there-

I have read a few posts on this site which have suggested setting up a Virtual Machine in order to carry out banking or other financial transactions. I assume this is because the Virtual Machine machine would be less likely to be infected with malware, keyloggers etc if it is not used for day-to-day browsing.

Firstly, have I undertood this correctly ? Is it a good idea to use a Virtual Machine for these purposes ?

Secondly, are there any good tutorials or general tips on how to set up a Virtual Machine on a Windows PC ? This is not something that I have tried before and it looks relatively complicated.

Thanks for any comments or advice.

 

[Eddie Morra]

Firstly, have I undertood this correctly ? Is it a good idea to use a Virtual Machine for these purposes ?

It's a good idea if you have good enough system resources for it, but bear in mind, it doesn't automatically keep you safe. If you're going to use a VM for carrying out banking transactions, use a snapshot which is clean to revert back to for each banking session. It only takes a few seconds to create and revert with one using VirtualBox or VMWare.

Unless you really need to, don't use Windows on a VM for this, it isn't necessary. Go for Linux instead... or even ChromeOS (customized Linux distribution) if you can get that to work.

You can find tutorials on YouTube for setting up a VM - they will be more than sufficient.

 

[upnorth]

Yes it is but I would recommend you use a dedicated machine if possible. There's several vendors of VMs but the one I tend to use most is VirtualBox.



More information found here : Oracle VM VirtualBox

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

You can use this site to download a VM for either VirtualBox or VMware Player. Both those programs are free. The download will be in zip format. One you unzip it, just double click on it and it will into into which ever VM software you installed. I was using Virtual Box up untill last week. Now using VMWare Player
Download a Windows 10 virtual machine - Windows app development

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

One thing about Virtual Box is after you install it, you need to install guest additions.

 

[bribon77]

For banking transactions or other financial transactions. I do not see any sense in the use. A virtual machine

"I can be wrong, I admit corrections"

Use a linux cd / Usb. I can also be wrong.

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

Shadow Defender with a good antikeylogger works too.

 

[Brie]

i read that dual booting windows and linux makes both operating systems unstable.

 

[Ink]

If you suspect you have some unwanted adware or malware, clean install the OS. But if your main system is secure and malware-free, you should have no problems.

A VM is still susceptible to malware, phishing and scams. Linux cannot prevent phishing websites, you can however install trusted web browser extensions to flag and block them.

You get some "secure browsers", but I don't know how effective they actually are. For example; Avast Secure Browser.

 

[shmu26]

Hi there-

I have read a few posts on this site which have suggested setting up a Virtual Machine in order to carry out banking or other financial transactions. I assume this is because the Virtual Machine machine would be less likely to be infected with malware, keyloggers etc if it is not used for day-to-day browsing.

Firstly, have I undertood this correctly ? Is it a good idea to use a Virtual Machine for these purposes ?

Secondly, are there any good tutorials or general tips on how to set up a Virtual Machine on a Windows PC ? This is not something that I have tried before and it looks relatively complicated.

Thanks for any comments or advice.

I don't really agree with the whole idea of banking in a VM. Why? Because it is inconvenient and resource-hogging to fire up a special VM every time you want to access a financial site. You would only do such a thing if you suspected that your system is infected.
Better to put your efforts into protecting your system from infection in the first place, otherwise you are just swatting flies, to which there is no end. The flies just keep on coming, if you have holes in your screens.
Slap a good default-deny solution on your system, and you won't have to worry about flies.

 

[oldschool]

I don't really agree with the whole idea of banking in a VM. Why? Because it is inconvenient and resource-hogging to fire up a special VM every time you want to access a financial site. You would only do such a thing if you suspected that your system is infected.
Better to put your efforts into protecting your system from infection in the first place, otherwise you are just swatting flies, to which there is no end. The flies just keep on coming, if you have holes in your screens.
Slap a good default-deny solution on your system, and you won't have to worry about flies.

I tend to agree. It's kind of ironic that the some people who either advocate or use VMs for banking are often the same people who see others as paranoid or who have overkill configurations. But, hey, whatever floats your boat!

 

[bribon77]

i read that dual booting windows and linux makes both operating systems unstable.

It is not like this. I have always had a Linux partition and both systems have gone correctly.

 

[shmu26]

i read that dual booting windows and linux makes both operating systems unstable.

The real problem is getting the boot process itself to work right. They use different booters, which don't always like each other. But once the operating systems start, they work fine.

 

[jetman]

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

Some of you refer to using Default Deny solutions within Windows.

What are good examples of this ? Is Kaspersky Trusted Applications Mode and example ? Are there any others ?

 

[harlan4096]

Kaspersky TAM it's not a pure default-deny solution "but hybrid", even though does a great job in general against unknown malware...

 

[shmu26]

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

Some of you refer to using Default Deny solutions within Windows.

What are good examples of this ? Is Kaspersky Trusted Applications Mode and example ? Are there any others ?

Some default deny solutions of the anti-exe type:
1 EXE Radar Pro
2 ReHIPS
3 VoodooShield
4 Comodo Firewall

Some default deny solutions of the Software Restriction Policy type:
1 Hard_Configurator
2 AppGuard

Hybrid:
1 Kaspersky TAM
2 Avast hardened/aggressive mode

 

[ChemicalB]

You can use a clean virtual machine with just the operating system, a browser and above all: using it only and exclusively for the home banking, so once you finish what you need to do in the website of your bank, Log Off and shutdown of the virtual environment.
I think that is the best solution but just a bit paranoid.