CAUTION: Free Online Banking Security Software
Online Banking Security Software
In light of my experience as provided below, I would strongly advise anyone to be very cautious about installing the additional security software Trusteer Rapport as provided free and encouraged by many different online banking organisations.
Additionally, if you have already installed this and you computer system is acting strange consider this as a possible cause.
My experience:
I would like to start by thanking all on here that provided suggestions on fixing my problem with “Printing Problems using IE7 with XP Pro”. (13 October 2009). Unfortunately, none of those worked.
Without listing a long list of what was done in attempting to rectify the problem, suffice to say that a very experienced professional computer repairer spent over two days attempting to repair it. Ultimately even after having completely removed IE and installed Firefox as the web browser, with the fault still remaining, it seemed to indicate an Operating System issue. All attempts at repairing this still drew a blank. The only remaining suggestion was a complete Hard Disk format and a complete re-installation of all the software etc. Prior to doing this he suggested communicating with Microsoft in case they were able to provide any suggestions.
I have to say that surprisingly Microsoft were absolutely excellent. For about a week I was provided each day with a particular aspect to attempt and report back, all by email. This still did not fix the problem. Microsoft then escalated this to their Microsoft Research department. They were able to link directly to my computer. For some four full afternoon/evening periods they were still unable to find the problem.
I then remembered that when connecting for online banking, I was always hit with ‘nag’ screens about installing some additional security software called Trusteer Rapport. As I wished to know something about this prior to installing it I always declined. However, one time I inadvertently had selected the incorrect option and this software was automatically installed. Immediately post this there was problems and in attempting to rectify these it wanted me to significantly alter the settings on my main internet security system, Kaspersky. I did not wish to do this. I therefore removed the Trusteer Rapport by use of the Add/Remove facility. My system then appeared to operate normally. I believed that this program had been removed.
I then considered if this could be an issue with my system. When looking at it in detail it did appear to have been totally removed, however there were a few possible anomalies that I felt needed investigating.
I contacted Trusteer and they were very unhelpful but persistence drew from them that aspects of their program are not always actually removed. For security reasons they were not prepared to tell me more, however they provided me with a Removal Tool Application.
This was used and my computer was finally returned to normal functionality.
I advised the professional computer repairer of the eventual cause. He was very interested and asked if he could have a copy of this removal tool. He has since advised me that he has gone back to the last three cases he has been working on that he has had problems resolving. All three provided very different symptoms, however all three had installed, through their different banks, this additional security program. Removal of Trusteer Rapport returned all three computers back to normal functionality. In fact one of these due to the persisting problem had actually reached the stage were a complete Hard Disk format had been done and a total fresh software installation had taken place. This system only stayed correctly running for two days before it starting responding in the same way as it had previously done. He was beginning to suspect a possible hardware issue. It did however transpire that this customer had gone to do online banking and this software had been installed again. Removal of it returned that system back to normal functionality.
Microsoft Research was also very interested in this and did say that there appears to be growing issues with this software.
Many different banks are advising installation of this software. With my experience I would most definitely advise caution. Once installed, if subsequently your system starts doing strange things consider that the cause may possibly be Trusteer Rapport.
BV