Internet security for poker players

digiman

Just wondering what people are using to protect their PCs from all types of threats and also wondering is anyone doing extra stuff that people may not know about to protect their accounts getting hacked.

I've just installed W7 so will get some new anti-virus SW now and just wondering is there any extra steps I should take?

FeetMagic

I never keep more than 2k on any poker site. Besides that just regular anti-virus updates.

RedJoker

Vitas did a video on online security a few days ago. Even if you don't have a subscription there's a load of useful links at the start of the thread.

fatguy

ESET Nod32 Internet Security Suite. It's worth paying for. They typically top or are near the top of the rankings for virus detection and prevention in independent tests. They certainly kick the **** out of any of the free options.

Also, get a SecureID token if you have a Stars account. There's no excuse not to get one if you have any decent amount of money in a Stars account. Ths makes you essentially immune to keyloggers, although it won't stop a determined hacker completely.

ianmc38

I have Eset, a firewall, Malware Bytes Anti Malware, Spybot Search and Destroy, Proc Guard. I also use Roboform for pw encryption. With poker sites, I change my pw every 2 weeks as well just for safety. 1 step further you can go is to use an email provider like Hushmail who are more secure than gmail et al.

ANXIOUS

FeetMagic wrote: »

I never keep more than 2k on any poker site.

Is that by choice?

phantom_lord

anyone use anything like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Eikon-Digital-Privacy-Manager-Fingerprint/dp/B0018E72TY

the dominator

1

newbie2

the dominator wrote: »

1

great post.
I wish you'd post here more often......:o

Mullicker

anyone use anything like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Eikon-Digital-.../dp/B0018E72TY

Wow snap buying this if it works how i imagine it does.

phantom_lord

dunno how useful it would be for poker though. if you could have some sort of set up where you could only access poker sites through the fingerprint reader it'd be great.

Mullicker

dunno how useful it would be for poker though. if you could have some sort of set up where you could only access poker sites through the fingerprint reader it'd be great.

From watching some of the demo videos i think you could set it up to do exactly this.

opr

Mullicker wrote: »

From watching some of the demo videos i think you could set it up to do exactly this.

Surely it would have to be something added at an administrative level by the pokersite itself as something you need to actually do specific to your account before being able to log in ? (Which would be amazing)

Don't really see the point of adding this on your own machine ? Isn't it just gonna be a block on opening the software on that machine ?

Edit - Just watched the Demo and the fact it manages your passwords with the swipe function means keyloggers and other forms of snooping would be unable to get your password. Does look pretty cool. If you could add an extra level of fingerprint protection at a software level to login to the pokersite it would be the ultimate online protection for poker players.

Opr

phantom_lord

but it just looks like it's a password manager for websites and logging into your computer. doesn't look like you could set it up so that you just wipe your finger and it logs you into stars does it?

Mullicker

I use Keepass and its perform auto type function to log me in to stars full tilt and ipoker sites, this program could do the same with a scan of your finger. In the demo i watched you can also set it up so that each of your fingers could start a different app, like your baby finger could start stars and your middle finger could start iPoker. Id be willing to buy this and be the forum guinea pig.

opr

From the demo i watched P_L thats exactly what its looks like you can set it up to do. He swipes his finger in the demo to login into certain websites.

Opr

phantom_lord

maybe i'm being an idiot here, but is that not some sort of plugin in firefox like the standard password manager it has, and is logging into a piece of software not going to be different?

merlin39

If you can create a user account with limited use. this will stop software from being installed. Linux works on this concept. If you know how, do a dual boot of windows and linux (ubuntu) on the same machine. use linux to surf the net and do online banking etc. Dont click on the pop up adds on websites.

dvdfan

opr wrote: »

Surely it would have to be something added at an administrative level by the pokersite itself as something you need to actually do specific to your account before being able to log in ? (Which would be amazing)

Don't really see the point of adding this on your own machine ? Isn't it just gonna be a block on opening the software on that machine ?

Edit - Just watched the Demo and the fact it manages your passwords with the swipe function means keyloggers and other forms of snooping would be unable to get your password. Does look pretty cool. If you could add an extra level of fingerprint protection at a software level to login to the pokersite it would be the ultimate online protection for poker players.

Opr

I know some banking sites only allow you to login to your account from a specific PC, if you format or buy a new PC you then need to reset it up. I presume it works by checking the unique ID of your hardware like your Hard drive or something so when you login it sends it to the banks server and unless you hard drive ID matches the one you registered with then it wont let you login.

It would have to be done on the poker server end though, cant visualise anything on your own PC that would do this and i suspect that product would only prevent someone accessing it on your PC only.

Even if the poker sites introduced this, It would probably be a big inconvenience for most people since they might use different PCs to play and it would also mean more work for support staff and so it would cost them more but considering the amount of money keep on some accounts youd think its something that the poker sites would offer as an optional security measure as im sure it would be quite easy to implement but from what ive seen from poker sites even seemingly simple improvements take forever to implement so i wouldnt hold my breath.

dwayman

Threatfire is Brilliant. It works beside your regular antivirus and looks for virus like behaviour.
It spots when a program tries to alter another program or download from another site etc. Really smart. When I'm datamining it notices that the software I use is trying to alter the partypoker and ipoker software which is something the antivirus should spot.


threatfire.com

cooker3

ianmc38 wrote: »

I have Eset, a firewall, Malware Bytes Anti Malware, Spybot Search and Destroy, Proc Guard. I also use Roboform for pw encryption. With poker sites, I change my pw every 2 weeks as well just for safety. 1 step further you can go is to use an email provider like Hushmail who are more secure than gmail et al.

You can turn on encryption for gmail. Just go to options and click on "always use https" in browser connection.
What does Proc guard do. I googled it but can't find any good explanations for it?

opr

phantom_lord wrote: »

maybe i'm being an idiot here, but is that not some sort of plugin in firefox like the standard password manager it has, and is logging into a piece of software not going to be different?

I had a look around on the website and logging into software app's isn't mentioned so I presume its not something thats supported.

dvdfan wrote: »

Even if the poker sites introduced this, It would probably be a big inconvenience for most people since they might use different PCs to play and it would also mean more work for support staff and so it would cost them more but considering the amount of money keep on some accounts youd think its something that the poker sites would offer as an optional security measure as im sure it would be quite easy to implement but from what ive seen from poker sites even seemingly simple improvements take forever to implement so i wouldnt hold my breath.

Thats why the finger reader would be so great. If it could be integrated as part of the log-on process to a poker site, it means you could play with complete security on any PC. As you say when they can't even be bothered to try and introduce something like you suggest above then talking about fingerprint identification is real pie in the sky stuff!

dwayman wrote: »

Threatfire is Brilliant. It works beside your regular antivirus and looks for virus like behaviour.
It spots when a program tries to alter another program or download from another site etc. Really smart. When I'm datamining it notices that the software I use is trying to alter the partypoker and ipoker software which is something the antivirus should spot.


threatfire.com

I use this too and its excellent.

Opr

ianmc38

Proc Guard stops any 3rd party program from accessing any of the running programs on your computer. Gmail using https is still far less secure than Hushmail.

PL, my laptop has a finger print reader built into it. You can add an extra layer of security to any piece of software by attaching your fingerprint to it, so you cant open any programs without fingerprint authorisation.

opr

ianmc38 wrote: »

PL, my laptop has a finger print reader built into it. You can add an extra layer of security to any piece of software by attaching your fingerprint to it, so you cant open any programs without fingerprint authorisation.

Thing is thats pretty useless in terms of poker security. All it basically does is stop someone opening that sites poker software on your PC.

Opr

ianmc38

Ah yeah im aware of that, just handy in case anyone ever tried to yoink my baby.

dvdfan

What about keyloggers/screen capturers, ive read up on this before and there are forums where you can get links keyloggers that arent picked up by several antiviruses, people were specifically asking for software not detected by a specific antivirus for example.

Although i havent checked it out, ive seen in the description where the screencaptures can be sent via email/etc (and no you wont find it in your send items lol) in realtime, so in theory someone could be recieving screenshots of your PC in realtime which would just about be any poker players worst nightmare apart from someone joyriding on your account.

Now i occassionaly check my Vs Player TAB in Holdem Manager to see if there is anyone im losing an unusual amount to, even when on a bad downswing it would be unusual to lose more than 3 buyins vs a specific player, my biggest wins over a 130k sample with 1 player is 6 buyins and this is over 300 hand sample with that player. Ive only 2 other players that ive won 3 buyins against, 1 is over a 34 hand sample and the other a 250 sample.

if i was the guy who lost over 3 buyins in 30 hands id be suspicious but one hand was deep and he called down with Ax on KxxAA board vs my Full House of Kings, another he tried to bluff me off 2 pair and folded to a push and another he lost with AK vs AA all in but in reality is unusual over a decent sample size to lose more than 3 buyins so i was just running hot and a small sample isnt that reliable.

2 people have won more than 3 buyins vs me over a decent sample size but its the low 3 buyin mark, the majority are around 2.5 bb or less. So for someone to use keyloggin/screen capture even if they were extremely patient it would quickly stand out, lets say they took €30 a day 5 days a week, after 1 month it would €600, after 2 months double that and youd know pretty quick that something was up.

Now i guess it depends what level your playing at, if i was taking €150 a week from a 100nl player it would be 12 buyins at the end of 2 months and highely noticeable, if i took €150 of a 1000 nl player it would only be a buyin after 2 months and not really noticeable for 3-6 months if at all. As much as nobody would like to be stolen from in this way if someone was doing this it wouldnt effect your overall win rate too much. Same for a 100nl player, if someone was being really clever and just taking €5 a day, 5 days a week, then it would be 3 months before youd even think of being susupicious, course he might just take €50 here and there but my point being it wouldnt stand out compared to someone who got greedy and took 600 over a few days play. Course he wouldnt be very clever if he could do this and was focusing on smaller stakes players when the big money is mid/high stakes

So the only way someone could get away with this cleverly at 100-400nl IMO is to take smaller amounts from several different accounts. So my question is, is there any software that is used in businesses etc to prevent against this type of thing where loggers get access, i doubt theres any free/home based softwares that do this as most people wouldnt be too bothered, but what about the likes of the goverment, police, solicitors etc these are the kind of businesses that would need software that protects against this kind of thing as if someone got access to a cop or solicitors PC then it would be disasterous? Im sure it costs extra but it would be worth it

JimmyCrackCorn!

1. Stay off Dodgie sites (PORN, Pirate software, Prate MUSIC ...... )

2. Use anti virus

3. Patch your pc. Use automatic updates religiously (both applications).

4. Make sure other people using ur pc dont break any of the above

digiman

Also a lot has to be said for common sense, I was going over some hands with my coach and had to run off to my brothers house, I turned of skype but left teamviewer still on with my FTP client still open.

Mullicker

Why dont you set teamviewer up in presentation mode? can never be too careful, although it seems like you can trust your coach.

colquhom

whos your coach digiman if u dont mind me asking and how much does he charge? pm if u want

ianmc38

Btw, if you ever want to download any software from the cousins or anything like that, Id recommend running all the software in a sandbox. I'd also recommend using your browser in a sandbox as well that way your computer is safe from any nasty sh*t.

Check out sandboxie. Highly recommended.