PrefInvestor1
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY Hi Again @J_Westlock, Well a brutal day on the markets today, my portfolio was down about 1.5% I think - even some of the prefs pulled back a bit which surprised me. Could be wrong but I am expecting more of the same (perhaps to a lesser extent ?) for a while given that the virus has now moved significantly outside China and more countries will start implementing quarantines and travel restrictions which will in turn have negative economic impact. So I sold a few holdings that I figure are likely to take the biggest hit today with a view to building a cash holding to spend at lower levels. Of course if it all bounces back tomorrow I will have done the wrong thing (again !). What have you been up to, been shorting or trading ?. Seems like you were up half the night last night as we were conversing in the early hours. For me that’s just not sleeping well, I am often awake at night. Anyway hope you didn’t come out off today too badly. ATB Pref
BrownAdder
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY almost everything Microsoft Office does for a fee - Google made it available on its drive for free From Word to Excel sheets all available without a single penny. havent used Ms Office in last 5 years or so. Google Excel has built in Share PL templates as well
PrefInvestor1
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY J_Westlock: Re: " I’m just wondering that with Veracrypt and Kaspersky Total Security/Safe Money how vulnerable I am if I use a very old version of Excel."… this is where I differ from Pref. Hi @J_Westlock, Well the problem with Office is that the complexity of the software offers a huge range of potential exploits for malware writers, more even than Windows itself potentially. Microsoft’s approach to all of their operating system and office products is the same these days, when they are covered by extended support if any security issues are found then they get fixed at code level and a patch rolled out via windows update - perhaps as a priority fix if it’s a high risk issue. This is why it’s important to always do your windows updates as soon as you can. That said Kaspersky (and other vendors too I’m sure) have put a huge amount of effort into their security products to catch any office exploits that they are aware of and even heuristics to catch ones that aren’t yet known about. But the basic principle still holds, you are better off having a product which is still covered by Microsoft support because they will be continuously publishing fixes for any security issues that they are aware of. As soon as a product goes out of support that stops and if there are still exploits to be found (and there almost certainly are) then unless your security software picks it up (which it may not) then you are vulnerable. How big a risk is that ?, well it only takes one virus to cause you a major headache - if you even know it’s there. Personally I would never continue to use any version of Windows or Office that Microsoft are no longer supporting. But that’s just me… ATB Pref
J_Westlock
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY mememe: ‘Personally, I’d just setup a hidden/encrypted volume on your external drive too’ - that’s what I don’t know how to do I’ll have to find out. I probably made my words more complicated than necessary… I merely meant create a standard veracrypt volume on a drive other than your c drive. The ‘hidden’ aspect is a bit more advanced/secure than I need it for.
mememe
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY @J_Westlock ‘Personally, I’d just setup a hidden/encrypted volume on your external drive too’ - that’s what I don’t know how to do I’ll have to find out.
J_Westlock
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY mememe: yes I backup on 2 external drives but they are not encrypted. Personally, I’d just setup a hidden/encrypted volume on your external drive too. I haven’t used AESCrypt yet… but I reckon it would be a good idea to use that on the other backup drives.
PrefInvestor1
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY Hi Again @trader_jack, Seems like I made an error with the pricing of Office 2016 Home & Student I cant find it anywhere for less than £72 and full price looks like ~£120 - which is a lot. So much in fact that Office 2019 Home & Student can be bought more cheaply, see link below for possible sources:- [link] The first one on this list is ridiculously cheap and if it was me I’d always prefer to buy from amazon because you can be 100% sure they will deliver, but that’s just me. However at these prices it’s no longer a cheap upgrade so you may need to give it more detailed consideration. If you are prepared to spend ~£100 then I would say that 2019 Home and Student now looks to be favourite - but you DO need to check that your PC meets the hardware requirements. Sorry for the mistake. ATB Pref
mememe
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY @J_Westlock, yes I backup on 2 external drives but they are not encrypted. I don’t know how to yet. I’ve heard about Bitlocker but not tried it. Do you use AESCrypt? I’ll take a look. Thanks
J_Westlock
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY mememe: I do all my work on Veracrypt and the one query I sent was responded to by Mounir Idrassi himself - quite impressed By the way @mememe, have you considered how you backup your files that are ‘hidden’? Personally, I put them on another server… also encrypted… and for stuff that isn’t changing eg. old company docs I need to keep I’ve burnt them onto CDs and locked them away. I had wondered what the impact to me would be if veracrypt ever suddenly disappeared but actually it has such a large community of developers that it’s probably more secure than many other apps in that way… but anyways, it’s probably also worth encrypting them elsewhere (on different storage) using a different app say AESCrypt.
J_Westlock
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY mememe: @J_Westlock, sorry to hear your computer was stolen had you left it in your car? I do all my work on Veracrypt and the one query I sent was responded to by Mounir Idrassi himself - quite impressed Are you still using Saxo for sharedealing? What version of Office do you use? I’m just wondering that with Veracrypt and Kaspersky Total Security/Safe Money how vulnerable I am if I use a very old version of Excel. I’ve had about 5 laptops stolen actually one from a hotel room, two from insecure work places (like a hut in middle of nowhere), one from a bar, one from a break-in to my premises. Yes, I just have a hidden volume with veracrypt that I use for all sensitive info/passwords. Still using Saxo, I was trying to closeout my positions a year or so back but they seem to have grown again. I also like the charts on Saxo. I wouldn’t copy what I do/plan to do with MS… what Pref says is far better advice. However, I use MS Office 2010 (can’t remember exact name of package from then). Really I only make use of Outlook, Excel and Word @ home. Re: " I’m just wondering that with Veracrypt and Kaspersky Total Security/Safe Money how vulnerable I am if I use a very old version of Excel."… this is where I differ from Pref. I don’t believe there’s much security built into the apps of Word, Excel and Outlook themselves… so if you have good virus checking s/w and firewall too then as far as I’m concerned you are pretty OK. But that’s the thing with MS… you can’t really tell what they do behind the scenes/how they interact… and one of my many reasons for not wanting to use thrir products where there’s a choice. My plan is to move to a Linix distro and use LibreOffice… so I’ve already started using LibreOffice on windows to prepare for that. If you are sharing files with others in Exce/Wordl then of course that idea gets blown apart to an extent dependent on what complexity you build into the sheets/docs (as they are not 1:1 the same)… but for home use… I’m not.
J_Westlock
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY swamp_rat: And so, why not just use incognito mode? @swamp_rat As I understand it, though I don’t use it… all ‘incognito mode’ will do is stop your browsing history from being stored on your local PC. That might be what you want to achieve… dunno. I use a VPN for a couple of reasons: when I’m away from home public wifi (eg. hotels, airports, work…) are useful but if you don’t encrypt the traffic then it is visible to others (esp. those controlling/with access to the wifi routers). yep… your netflix example… if you want to access UK sites when not in UK, some are blocked… geo-blocked sites are a pain and there’s a constant battle between the vpn providers and the streamers in blocking and setting up new servers/changing IPs all the time; the good VPN providers are usually on top. others use VPNs to access work (a corporate VPN… very common) or you can set them up to access your own home network (I don’t do that… when I’m not there, the home network is off).
swamp_rat
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY trader_jack: You mention Office Home & Student 2016 , according to the Microsoft page you indicated yesterday mainstream support ends in October this year but extended support goes on until 2025 And let’s face it, who has ever needed support for excel or word? You Google it, there is no telephone number anyhow and the answers are easy enough to google.
swamp_rat
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY PrefInvestor1: A VPN does not provide any protection against a keylogger. It’s outgoing messages will still get delivered to their destination just as all other messages are. What a VPN provides is privacy in that it obscures your IP address (or allows you to pretend you are somewhere you aren’t) and protection against WiFi monitoring tools that are only really a problem on public WiFi networks. Pref, I dont u understand VPN’s. Well at least I know what they do but why? Seems to me if I worked abroad and wanted uk tv, I’d appreciate one. Oppositely, living in uk and had I time for tv on any s ale, I’d perhaps appreciate us Netflix. Barring that, these VPN servers have a few hundred locations and with a global audience, by forcing you IP to one of these locations, are you not making yourself stand out? Let’s face it, if your after something interesting, my home ip is a needle in a haystack, the people with something to hide/protect will be on the VPN’s relative limited offerings. And so, why not just use incognito mode?
mememe
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY @PrefInvestor1, so why do I get the message only when I mount Veracrypt?
mememe
24 Feb 2020
LLOYDS is going to FLY @J_Westlock, sorry to hear your computer was stolen had you left it in your car? I do all my work on Veracrypt and the one query I sent was responded to by Mounir Idrassi himself - quite impressed Are you still using Saxo for sharedealing? What version of Office do you use? I’m just wondering that with Veracrypt and Kaspersky Total Security/Safe Money how vulnerable I am if I use a very old version of Excel.
