Windows File Which Records Credit Card Numbers, SSN, etc.

[Gene K]

I have Norton Internet Security 2003. Occasionally, I get an Norton
Anti-Virus pop up which states that there is an attempt to forward
credit card numbers or my SSN to someone with out my permission. I have
made attempts to prevent storage of such information in order to stop
these furtive attempts to steal such information.
My specific questions:
a. Tell me, if you can, everything I should enable/disable to prevent
storage of such information in Windows.
b. What File/Folder is it stored in so I can remove the information.
If you feel this is sensitive information and should not generally be
revealed to the public, please E-mail me direct. To do that, check
Properties of this posting and remove the obvious to obtain my real
E-mail address.

 

[Phil]

See below.......

I have Norton Internet Security 2003. Occasionally, I get an Norton
Anti-Virus pop up which states that there is an attempt to forward
credit card numbers or my SSN to someone with out my permission. I
have made attempts to prevent storage of such information in order to
stop these furtive attempts to steal such information.
My specific questions:
a. Tell me, if you can, everything I should enable/disable to prevent
storage of such information in Windows.

Unless you actaully entered this info in a program(like money or quicken,
etc), windows does not collect this info, nor would it have access to it
even if you did use them in money or quicken. Windows does not send any
personal information about you at all and doesn't collect any either.
Windows update gets info about your computer, but that's it.
There are viruses that do this though. They will collect passwords and
account numbers you have stored on your machine and send then to hackers. I
suggest you do an online virus scan as sometimes these viruses disable
nortons as well.

 

[Guest]

R you talking about buying stuff over the internet using credit cards. You
can disable the caching of secure web pages for Internet Explorer.
In IE goto Tools>Internet Options>Advanced
Under Security enable 'Do not save encrypted pages to disk'.
Clear the Internet cache as well to delete all your cached web sites.
As for something trying to forward your credit cards details, you done a
full virus scan?

 

[D.Currie]

I have Norton Internet Security 2003. Occasionally, I get an Norton
Anti-Virus pop up which states that there is an attempt to forward
credit card numbers or my SSN to someone with out my permission. I have
made attempts to prevent storage of such information in order to stop
these furtive attempts to steal such information.
My specific questions:
a. Tell me, if you can, everything I should enable/disable to prevent
storage of such information in Windows.
b. What File/Folder is it stored in so I can remove the information.
If you feel this is sensitive information and should not generally be
revealed to the public, please E-mail me direct. To do that, check
Properties of this posting and remove the obvious to obtain my real
E-mail address.

Are you sure this pop-up is from Norton and not something that's trying to
convince you that you should buy some security program? Some of them look
pretty legit.

As far as where the files are stored, it depends on where you put them,
although I can't imagine how Norton could tell the difference between a
credit card number from any other string of numbers you've saved on your
computer. You might have entered the numbers in some financial program, or
some profile that you saved, or maybe a copy of a web site where you entered
the info to buy something or apply for a loan, or for banking purposes.

But once again, I can't see how Norton would know what the data is -- Or,
are you using that Norton password manager, or whatever it's called. It has
specific fields where you enter the data for credit cards. But I'd imagine
Norton itself would keep that safe.

What's the exact text of the message?

 

[Gene K]

Are you sure this pop-up is from Norton and not something that's
trying to convince you that you should buy some security program?
Some of them look pretty legit.

As far as where the files are stored, it depends on where you put
them, although I can't imagine how Norton could tell the difference
between a credit card number from any other string of numbers you've
saved on your computer. You might have entered the numbers in some
financial program, or some profile that you saved, or maybe a copy of
a web site where you entered the info to buy something or apply for a
loan, or for banking purposes.

But once again, I can't see how Norton would know what the data is --
Or, are you using that Norton password manager, or whatever it's
called. It has specific fields where you enter the data for credit
cards. But I'd imagine Norton itself would keep that safe.

What's the exact text of the message?

The Window is from the Norton Anti-Virus Program. The text, as I remember
it, simply states that an attempt is being made to send private information
over the Internet, identifies the information as being a credit card number
[several times] or my social security number [once] and gives the last four
numbers of the number (has not been wrong once, at least not yet) and
recommends that the attempt be blocked [my choice though]. I do not use
Money or Quicken or any other similiar program to record financial
information. My version of Nortons Internet Security [2003] does not have a
Password Manager. That, I believe, was added to the 2004 version. I do have
A1 Roboform Pro as a password tool and it is regarded by PC World and PC
Magazine as probably the best of these programs and is very secure. It does
have a provision for storing credit card numbers but I have never chosen to
use it.
I do use credit cards occaisionally to purchase items via the Internet plus
I use online bill pay at my bank. Some places require your SSN. I do look
for the padlock at such sites.
I have found no option in Norton to check/uncheck to require such blockage
but I glad it is there. What I do have checkmarked in Outlook Express is
Tools/Options/Security "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as
me". At the suggestion of another, I have gone to Internet Explorer/Internet
Options/scrolled down to Security and placed a check mark by "Do not save
encrypted pages to disk".
I have noted approximately three time that this warning/action has occurred
during or just after a visit to a Forum site (I will not name it for fear of
legal action and/or the fact that Hackers can stick such files on their
servers/sites without the Webmasters knowledge). I intend to visit said site
before the PM is over to see if I have solved the problem with you folks
help.
It is not, as you think, a virus since I keep mine updated and scans reveal
no problem. It is apparently spyware since I find stuff every time I run
AddAware, Spybot, and SpySweeper.
The point: yes, Windows does store this information somewhere and someone
apparently knows where and what it is and is planting something in an
attempt to retrieve it. I personally believe that it may in those encrypted
files which I believe are stored as Internet History for the number of days
you allow (I am going to change my setting to 0 if possible). EITHER those
files are not encrypted or someone has found the key.

 

[D.Currie]

Are you sure this pop-up is from Norton and not something that's
trying to convince you that you should buy some security program?
Some of them look pretty legit.

As far as where the files are stored, it depends on where you put
them, although I can't imagine how Norton could tell the difference
between a credit card number from any other string of numbers you've
saved on your computer. You might have entered the numbers in some
financial program, or some profile that you saved, or maybe a copy of
a web site where you entered the info to buy something or apply for a
loan, or for banking purposes.

But once again, I can't see how Norton would know what the data is --
Or, are you using that Norton password manager, or whatever it's
called. It has specific fields where you enter the data for credit
cards. But I'd imagine Norton itself would keep that safe.

What's the exact text of the message?

The Window is from the Norton Anti-Virus Program. The text, as I remember
it, simply states that an attempt is being made to send private information
over the Internet, identifies the information as being a credit card number
[several times] or my social security number [once] and gives the last four
numbers of the number (has not been wrong once, at least not yet) and
recommends that the attempt be blocked [my choice though]. I do not use
Money or Quicken or any other similiar program to record financial
information. My version of Nortons Internet Security [2003] does not have a
Password Manager. That, I believe, was added to the 2004 version. I do have
A1 Roboform Pro as a password tool and it is regarded by PC World and PC
Magazine as probably the best of these programs and is very secure. It does
have a provision for storing credit card numbers but I have never chosen to
use it.
I do use credit cards occaisionally to purchase items via the Internet plus
I use online bill pay at my bank. Some places require your SSN. I do look
for the padlock at such sites.
I have found no option in Norton to check/uncheck to require such blockage
but I glad it is there. What I do have checkmarked in Outlook Express is
Tools/Options/Security "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as
me". At the suggestion of another, I have gone to Internet Explorer/Internet
Options/scrolled down to Security and placed a check mark by "Do not save
encrypted pages to disk".
I have noted approximately three time that this warning/action has occurred
during or just after a visit to a Forum site (I will not name it for fear of
legal action and/or the fact that Hackers can stick such files on their
servers/sites without the Webmasters knowledge). I intend to visit said site
before the PM is over to see if I have solved the problem with you folks
help.
It is not, as you think, a virus since I keep mine updated and scans reveal
no problem. It is apparently spyware since I find stuff every time I run
AddAware, Spybot, and SpySweeper.
The point: yes, Windows does store this information somewhere and someone
apparently knows where and what it is and is planting something in an
attempt to retrieve it. I personally believe that it may in those encrypted
files which I believe are stored as Internet History for the number of days
you allow (I am going to change my setting to 0 if possible). EITHER those
files are not encrypted or someone has found the key.

Hmmm. They're encrypted for secure transport over the Internet, but that
doesn't mean they're encrypted when they're cached on your computer, since
in theory that's private. And if that's where they're coming from, it would
be a simple process to find the HTML code in a form that asks for your
credit card number, and simply grab the data after that.

Good thing Norton caught it, or we'd find you on one of those Identity Theft
commercials.

Might be a good idea not to store any Internet content on your machine.
Clear the cookies, the temp files, everything.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have Norton Internet Security 2003. Occasionally, I get an Norton
Anti-Virus pop up which states that there is an attempt to forward
credit card numbers or my SSN to someone with out my permission. I have
made attempts to prevent storage of such information in order to stop
these furtive attempts to steal such information.

This I think will be a result of going to a page contaminated by the
Download.Ject vulnerability about which there was a lot of fuss last
month. It then infects your machine with a program that notes when you
go to a site, like a Bank, and logs keystrokes to be sent to a remote
site (in Russia - that one has been shut down, but . . . ) . Get and
run the links given at www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm (and at the
www.lavasoftusa.com site get the VX2 plugin for the Adaware program) and
see if the warnings go away

If they do not then the only *certain* way of ensuring the machine is
clean would be a complete reformat and reinstall from the ground up,
making very sure to get firewalls in place before connection to the net
*at all* and all critical downloads before going anywhere but the update
site