Safe Computing For the Elderly?

wingspan asks: "My 80-year old mother is insisting on using this new fangled thing called the Internet for banking and brokerage. I researched ways for her to perform those activities safely. The typical suggestions, from organizations such as BITS [pdf], include installing anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, anti-adware, browser toolbar, and a personal firewall. The suggestions also include not clicking on links, verifying security certificates (If it has a cert, it must be a good site!), making sure the address begins with 'https://' regularly updating the security software and patching all other software, and regularly changing passwords. Personally, I think the technical suggestions are too Windows-centric, too costly, and leave too much of an attack surface. The non-technical suggestions are simply too much to ask of the elderly. What do you think? Is it possible for an elderly person to safely perform Internet banking and brokerage? If so, what system should they have, how should it be configured and maintained, and how much of the security should depend with the elderly user?"

Get her on Linux

I've had great success getting technically incompetent people to avoid the evils of the Internet by introducing them to Linux.

They hate the bootup sequence text and the weird program names, so they quit using computers altogether and get back to using ATMs.

This may or may not be what you are trying to accomplish with your grandma.

Re:Get her on Linux

Once you have done this, logout of your grandma

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner in the "most disturbing thing ever uttered on slashdot" category.

Finkployd

Sad

A rather elitist and patronizing view of the elderly.

Author needs to be whacked with a cane.

Re:Sad

"As you get older you lose your mental faculties. That's not patronizing - it's what happens."

Sometimes true, however I once had opportunity over several weeks to play a Monk in his late eighties at chess, a game at which I have some talent. I've never been so completelly destroyed in chess so many times in a row, his abilities were fearsome.

Yet he seemed absent minded, it was all very puzzling.

Re:Sad

Chess skill is largely a basis of pattern recognition and experience, prodigies aside. One can be brilliant at chess by sheer dint of having played thousands and thousands of games and be mediocre at everything else in life. Adrian de Groot [wikipedia.org] famously [in the chess world, at least] found that Grandmasters are far better than amateurs at memorizing real gameplay positions on a board, but are just as poor as amateurs with nonsense positions [three white bishops all on black squares, kings adjacent, general random piece placement]. This has led heavily to the adoption of the 'pattern recognition' mode of thought.

Your monk, then, may have just been very, very, experienced, in spite of his old age, and thus fearsome. Hell, look at Viktor Kortchnoi [wikipedia.org].

That said, though, I absolutely believe there are some very, very, sharp elderly men and women out there. As well as some very, very, strong ones, to dispel another myth. The key is using what you have -- intelligence, strength -- and never giving it a chance to slip into senility.

Re:Sad

interesting stuff.

The Monk in question had been left at the monestary as a baby and raised there. Chess was, and remains, a major entertainment in that monestary. We're probably talking over 70 years of constant chess playing.

What struck me as odd at the time was that I didn't seem to be able to come up with a single long term strategy that he didn't block several moves before I got to a checkmate. I got a few checks, but usually before I realised something horrible was happening elsewhere on the board.

Safe is safe enough.

Use upgraded antivirus, adware and spyware blockers and a good firewall. Beyond that the main concern is to never fall for phising attacks - ie you have to teach them that their bank/broker will NEVER send them a mail asking for them to log in or any such thing. Teach them to just say no to links in emails. This is a particular problem for many inexperienced users who tend to blindly trust the email headers.

Odds of more exotic attacks are slim enough to be ignored for every day users and really isn't a concern. If they move enough money to be specifically targeted, then they have enough money to have a personal computer security expert look over the system regularly.

Re:Safe is safe enough.

I would add to this: only use bookmarks to navigate the web instead of typing in addresses. Especially if the person has never used a keyboard before(or hasn't in a long while) and may have a bit of trouble reading the address bar accurately. One mistaken keystroke could send you right to a phisher/camper's site. Plus, if you only navigate to known trustworthy sites, your chances of getting spyware/virus etc. are greatly reduced.

Never used a computer?

First of all, go with something *you* are comfortable with, because you're going to be the first person she calls in the event of an emergency.

Otherwise, considering going Apple. Sure some will decry the proprietary aspects, but it's an *easy* system to use, and with Applecare she will have a years worth of tech support from someone who is inside the US of A if you're not availabe.

My 76 yo Mom has a Powerbook for her internet related stuff, and a Winbook, because she was a long time Windows user and her embroidery stuff runs only on Windows (it's tied to a Bernina, who offers no Mac port of their software).

I think if she hadn't been into the sewing thing we could have gone straight Mac. She understands too, that if she needs to go on the internet for any reason with the WB, she uses "that other account you set up for me" (i.e. non-Admin), cause it's safer.

FWIW, the PB has been just fine for 3 years, the WB has had problems within 3 months of purchase, YMMV.

Good luck, whatever you do.

Ubuntu + Explanations about phising

Since she isnt gonna install applications but only browse the Internet, she doesnt need to understand how her OS works. So i would say go for a Ubuntu with icons to the few programs she will use on the desktop (Browser, Mail client, Text editor). Once this is done, you re safe from every threat except phising. As someone else said before you will have to teach her about the danger of links in e-mail, and that they shouldn t trust their email.

Re:Ubuntu + Explanations about phising

So i would say go for a Ubuntu

She wants to use it for banking. Banking sites are often designed for IE and nothing else. Maybe Firefox will work, but that's not guaranteed.

One word:

Apple Macintosh.

I bought a MacBook for my mother's birthday. She has never had any problem whatsoever and this is the first time she uses Mac OS X. My brother has bought her a Windows laptop (Toshiba) before but it was too hard to teach her the security expertise required to safely operate it connected to the Internet. Needless to say we decided to do what Slashdotters advised us to do - that is buy her a new Linux notebook (Assus). Well, let's just say that we had to find something else *cough*copyandpaste*cough*. So I bought her a MacBook. Now she can safely do anything she wants and as a bonus she can watch DVDs on a nice 17" screen. (She also told me that finally the software don't look like sh*t.) And she's probably right saying that she was sick of us telling her that she needs to learn this, read that, buy a book on this etc. She wanted to just use the dam*n thing and that's what she's doing now. So this was the best thing I could have possibly done. $3.299,00 is nothing compared to the time (and therefore - money) I have saved thanks to Apple, Inc.

Windows hates the elderly

I'm amazed at how user-hostile Windows is when confronted with someone who has never seen a computer. My girlfriend's elderly grandmother just got a computer for the first time. It's an interesting situation cause she has never used one before in any way or form. I was on the phone with her trying to help her out and when I'd say "click OK", I had to explain that she had to move the cursor over the box that said OK and press the button on the mouse. Now imagine that kind of user confronted with a popup saying "Google Desktop is attempting to connect to the Internet. Allow? Keep Blocking?" It totally freaked her out, and explaining firewalls and how the Internet works was futile. It's like a completely different planet for her. I don't know if Linux or Mac OS X would be any better, but I wonder. What's a good system for someone who hasn't touched a computer before? What would this system need to be like?

Three small steps

Do this for her: Install Firefox, set up a browser bookmark for her bank's HTTPS address, and configure her email so that URLs in email phishing messages are non-clickable.

If she can figure out how to make her URLs clickable again, she's probably smart enough to learn about secure surfing. If not, at least she's less likely to be phished.

One Laptop Per Granny?

Make a system running some Linux distro in a little box with no legacy ports available. Have three giant icons for the browser, simple word processor and email, do not give them the root password.

what about training / courses ?

Everybody wants to get on the internet and netbank, surf, mail, shop.
Imho the idea that this ought to be simple and easy for everybody is false.

Time for a bad analogy.

If I want to drive a car on the highway, i first need to :
- learn how to drive a car
- learn how to behave in traffic
Furthermore I need to have an understanding of what i'm doing in order to be able to predict the outcome of my actions.

Why is this accepted for driving a car, but not for computing and using internet? (It looks like a TV set, but it something entirely different. People watching TV don't risk identity theft, for one thing.) Internet can be a powerful tool... but powertools can cause accidents when not used properly.

Given the current situation, maybe some people are better off not owning a computer or connecting it to the net. Some elderly will do fine, some just can't wrap their head around it.
(disclaimer : i some across computer-illiterates of all ages, not just elderly.)

Ok, i must have gotten about three bad analogies in there. Let's call it a night.

Not really about the elderly

I don't think this is specifically about the elderly. It is about anyone who isn't internet-savvy. The elderly, because of their lack of exposure to computers, may form a substantial group of such users, but the same would be true of new users in the developing world etc.

iMac or Mac Mini

Get them an iMac or a Mac Mini with a 24 or 30 inch screen from Dell.

Set the system up to auto-update.

If they have vision problems there are settings on the Mac to help.

You might consider getting an additional keypad - for instance you can get one from x-keys [ymouse.com] and set it up with all the things they normally want to do - opening and closing the web brower for instance, you could even set it up for different keys to open different sites. Then clearly label the keys.

Isn't that...

an oxymoron?

linux embedded pacemaker..

that is Safe Computing For the Elderly.

2 ways

There are two ways to keep Granny safe on the internet;

(1) If you can get her a static IP address, get her a generic PC and install your favourite distribution of Linux. Customise it for her with a few simple desktop icons. Know the root password so you can login remotely and perform maintenance (or just eject the CD-ROM and scare the shit out of her -- I used to do that all the time in the office where I work).

(2) In all other cases, get her an Apple Mac.

my grandma uses wget

My grandma uses wget. She egreps the output for <a\s+href and does wget in the link she chose. This way, instead of blindly clicking on the anchor, she picks the URL she wants and she is not phished.

Oh, yes, once grandpa modified her hosts file, transfered funds from her savings account run away with his 20 something bride.

Just Install Ubuntu

Seriously, that's it. Put big (and I mean BIG) shortcuts with generic names on the desktop for all the programs they need. Just Internet, E-Mail, Music, and so on will do. Explain to them never to trust e-mail from people they don't know and that their bank wont e-mail them. Have all their favorite websites bookmarked, or better yet have desktop shortcuts. You can set up an SSH server for updates, and they wont even need to know about it. They presumably won't need to play games or anything, so drivers aren't a worry, but you'll have to install extra codecs and plug-ins (MP3, Java, Flash, possibly Windows Media). If you really want to do things right, set up the VNC server in GNOME (can't remember the name at the moment) so that you can connect and show them how to do things if necessary. That's it, end of story. I don't know why everybody makes things so hard.

Banking

Banking it not safe for elderly people, online or offline.
Ofcourse unless your name if John Coyote Mutombwe Esq. and you are executing the will of their late oil baron long lost relative and need $45k to get the inheritance out of Nigeria.

Rote

I've found that time and repetition work very well, regardless of OS or application. Spend the time with them as they use it. I've found 2 common causes of their problems are 1) not remembering what to do in each case, and 2) what to do in a new situation. In both cases, being able to quickly ask for and receive help works best.

Get her a mac.

Echoing many of the above posts, just get her a Mac. Don't get me wrong, I'm not much of a Mac person myself and I like Linux, but as much fun as getting and configuring a nice Ubuntu box for Grandma might be for you, and as much nerd cred it might get you to be able to tell all your LUG buddies about how you've got Granny on FOSS, it'll be just as much of a PITA for her and you in the long run. One thing Mac is light-years ahead of the competition on is usability and support to someone who has never seen a computer before, which means no panicking midnight calls to you.

Security Suggestions too Windows-centric?

Gee do you think theres a reason for that?

Don't get a Mac... yet

I'd love to say "get a Mac", but I have to say there is one gaping hole on the Mac side that seriously needs closing. That hole is Safari, which doesn't _currently_ have a phishing monitor. They say it's coming for Leopard though. If this is the case, in a couple of months I might just day "get a Mac".

Safe from others, and safe from herself.

I've spent quite some time teaching basic computer/Internet usage to a wide variety of people; some as young as 5, some in their 90s. At some point you realize that there are actually two issues with regards to Internet safety. The first is securing your machine from malicious attacks (viruses, spyware, malware, etc). The second is securing yourself from social attacks by others.

You will probably find a lot of information on the first kind of safety - this is what most tech people will talk about when speaking of Internet security. There are a lot of people much smarter than I am that could tell you a lot of great ways to secure yourself. My basic advice to people was always:
- If you have high-speed Internet, buy a router with some basic firewall abilities (typically between $50 and $80 CDN)
- invest in some antivirus software. Run it at least once a week. If you have a thick client email application, configure your antivirus application to check your mail as it comes in.
- Install a spyware application. Tell her to run it once a month.
- If it's an option, buy a Mac. I would avoid installing linux simply because when Edna from the bridge club comes by to help her do something, Edna probably won't know anything about Linux, but she may know some of the more mainstream OSs/applications.
- Install a browser other than IE. Do your best to prevent her from accidentally using IE.
- Do not let her use Outlook or Outlook express. By itself it's not responsible for Internet security, but it is inherently more susceptible to problems than other thick clients.
- if at all possible, partition her drive into a data partition and an OS/Apps partition. That way you can easily reinstall everything if yo have to with only minimal data loss.

That's all that's really needed. The harder part of Internet security is actually getting the individual to act in a secure manner. Start by explaining that communicating over the Internet is just like communicating in real life. Make her feel that this is an extension of what she has been doing for the last 80 years, not some new fangled thing that has just started. That will make her feel a little more comfortable with what she is doing. With every suggestion, relate it to something that she already understands. Some basic guidelines:

- There are places that you can safely go all of the time, and there are places that you should probably never go to (insert name of seedy part of town here).
- There are people that you can trust on the Internet, and there are lots of people that you cannot trust.
- Never ever every give anyone money just because they ask for it. Only give money to people in exchange for services or products that *YOU* asked for (not that they think you need). Obviously some room for charity here, but do reinforce this point. The elderly are the target of most of the scams that try to take money for no good reason (Think "I'm a Nigerian prince that needs to borrow..."). My wife works at a bank and stops about one old lady every six weeks from emptying her bank account so that she can give it to someone in Nigeria/Egypt/Publishers Clearing House, etc.
- When providing information to people, it's always better to go to them then to have them come to you. If someone from Bank of America wants you to log into your account to check something, open up your browser and type in http://www.bankofamerica.com/ [bankofamerica.com], never click on a link that they provided. Yes, there is a difference. No, you probably won't be able to tell. Relate this to the idea that when your bank calls you for financial information it is always a better idea to call them right back than to provide information directly. She should initiate all transactions.
- When asked to fill out a web form, always ask these three questions:

Visually impaired?

My 95 year old grandmother has been visually impaired for over a decade. She had trouble finding good software to improve her computer experience and ended up spending several hundred dollars on something called ZoomText. http://www.synapseadaptive.com/ [synapseadaptive.com] Which I found to be a complete and total rip off. It's better than Window's built in stuff, but it's not worth more than $50.

However! Apple has done a pretty good job of including such features, and honestly I think they might be better. She'll still need a huge damn screen, but OS X has some pretty slick Accessibility options that should be able to help her get around.

The biggest problem I know of for people being introduced to the internet at this stage is clicking on things they shouldn't. Install Firefox and AdBlocker Pro (or plus?) and have it use one of the online maintained blocking lists. Additionally walk her through all her sites and block anything that needs to be blocked. I also use FlashBlock. Make sure she knows both are installed and tell her how to use them. Old people hate having anything hidden from them according to what someone else thinks will be their benefit - especially if this lady is prepaired to do internet banking at 80.

Remote Management! Apple provides remote management software but it's not free and requires a Mac to do the remoting, where Microsoft's is free and there is an MS client for both Windows and OS X, and a 3rd party version for *NIX. However I have used VNC (RealVNC to be exact) for OS X which functions and allows the user to see what you're doing. But I've had problems keeping the server side running on OS X. Might just be me. The nice thing is you can remote to her computer from any platform.

As far as securing it, that's a matter of restricting web access and monitoring mail. And once you're on a Mac the only real issues to watch for are phishing.

I'd get her a 20" iMac. It includes a camera and she could video chat with her grandkids. It would make visits to Grandma's a bit more enjoyable as well (:

Warn about email scams.

No matter what kind of system you get her, don't forget to warn her about email scams.
It took me a long time to convince my parents that there is no child in Indonesia getting the money they DID send, that there is no one trying to escape to the United States needing their money and always check for the validity of charities asking for help.
Also, the identity thefts... well, you get the point. LOL

My dad is an educated man. He has a pharmacological degree and that took many years of college and he still fell for some of those scams. Even after my "lectures" I still worry that he may end up doing something stupid and losing his entire retirement or something.

I'm certain you've already thought of this... but if anyone has any ideas how to knock some sense into someone who is from "Father knows best" ... anyway, I guess that becomes a whole other topic....
Sorry

Kris

 

KISS

Keep it simple as possible. If all she wants to do is the internet, set her up with something like MSN TV [msntv.com] or maybe even a Wii [wii.com] once the browser comes out and if it supports SSL. Also, some cable companies offer web browsing through their digital cable box, and I'm sure that there's some linux distro out there that runs in a very small storage footprint (256MB or less) that can be run in a set top box configuration.

Bottom line, if she just wants to surf the internet, get her something that just surfs.

byzantineOS

runs from a cd in ram and is just Mozilla, not much else.
ByzantineOS on Sourceforge [sf.net]
works with most computers with a lan connection.

PC's for Dummies

Get your elderly user to take a look at the book "PC's for Dummies". Several of you spoke of scenarios in which you attempted to explain some computer or internet-related concept, only to find that your grandfather was so lacking in fundamental knowledge that your explanation made no sense to him at all. This book was written with this type of user in mind. I began using PC's later in life than most of you. "PC's for Dummies" explained many things that authors of other, allegedly, beginner level books assumed I already knew.

White List

I all she wants to do is access a few money sites, you could always set up a whitelist so she can't access anything else! Of course, then when her friends send her links to cute kitty pictures that she can't access, she might get cranky...oh yeah, those aren't usually links, they're usually 80MB attachments. Should be fine. :-)

Ask hard question

Ask the hard question: what exactly is it about banking and brokering ONLINE that is so attractive and necessary? This is what should worry you, the motivation about finance sites. Some people lose all sense of danger as they age.

To give a real Internet appliance, do a minimal install of Debian with Windowmaker. Large icons in top right for web, mail, word processor, maybe photo app. People with previous computer phobias react astonishingly well to this setup, comments like, of course I can use THAT are normal. Not a fashionable choice, not what everyone else has, but its a real appliance, and it will be super fast. Ephipany will be better than firefox. Evolution or Kmail are nice because they do addresses, calendar, notes and so on. Evolution in particular can give new users a sense of it helping them organize their lives. Abiword is better than OO. If shopping is an issue, set up the shopping sites in the toolbar bookmarks under 'shopping'.

Strongly discourage banking and brokering unless there is some real extraordinary reason why phone calls to a known person will not do. How many transactions? What's the problem this solves, exactly?

But even with an appliance, its only safer, its not safe.

Elderly computing

It all depends. What's her Social Security Number?

ordissimo ?

what about something like this [ordissimo.com]? => A mini-itx fan-less computer with a simplified keyboard (no ALT, CTRL combination), a super simplified GUI (based on linux) and no root rights by default (no need for antivirus).

You left off Privoxy

If they can't see ads and pop-ups then they can't click on them to download and install malware. "Your computer's time is wrong, click here it fix it" works because non-technical people don't know any better.

"Quick and Easy" solution

installing anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, anti-adware, browser toolbar, and a personal firewall

The first 5 of those 6 are solved by simply getting a Mac. The firewall question is solved by turning on the firewall in OS X.

There are also several things you can do in OS X to make the experience safer for her, such as restricting her account to a whitelist of URLs (including the URLs of all of her financial websites and anything else she's interested in). I don't know if that would be too restrictive for her, but maybe it would provide a good sandbox to start out in, and as her comfort level and understanding of the internet increases, she (or you) could loosen the restrictions.

From the inside

Here's some advice form someone who's just finished building a new internet banking security system for the bank I work for:

DONT USE WINDOWS

Simple really.

Seriously, for someone who wasn't weaned on Windows, using a modern Linux desktop is a very viable proposition. The only trojan attack vectors we've seen are from Windows boxes. A recent survey stated that 50% of all trojanned machines run Windows XP SP2, so there's no safety there. Most are simple key-loggers which are bad enough, but there's a new wave of targetted banking site trojans designed to crack various protection schemes.

Install Linux, Mandriva is a good newbies distro. Get broadband with a hardware router/firwall. Put big icons on the panel for e-mail, browser and OpenOffice. Put a signle Bookmark for teh Banking site on the browser toolbar. Lock down the KDE desktop using Kiosk. Install Spamassasin to cut down on the phishing e-mails. Sign them up with a bank that supports Firefox (there's plenty, we do) and has a form of 2nd Factor Authentication. A smaller bank will be less of a target, but they need to be big enough to have proper security in place.

Most importantly, patiently explain to them WHY they must only ever use the bookmark to access thier banking, never reply to e-mails or follow links on other sites. Don't assume they won't understand the background, just issuing blanket orders to not do something is guaranteed to confuse and be forgotten/ignored. Explain it to them in simple, non-technical language and use analogies to things tehy do understand. If they understand the why, they will be better prepared when they do see an attack vector you haven't explicitally told them about.

John.

P.S. And yes, I've done this for my parents...

try linux

I recently migrated my father over to Ubuntu from winxp, while he is only in his 50's he was still quite new and ignorant to the world of computing. How did he take the change you might ask? He handled the change very well I must say. I think the most difficult part of Linux to the new user is getting installed and set up to perform... being that I took care of that, he can now enjoy the internet in a carefree manner and honestly just look for trouble if he so desires. Which is what the internet it is all about. It's really gratifying to be able to liberate your parents from m$ and even more so not having to worry about whether or not they will get a virus or key logged. That pretty much just leaves phishing to worry about... Thats my 411.

Been there, done that...

I have had the misfortune of helping my in-laws, both 75 at the time, to jump into the digital domain. We did this originally with a hand-me-down PC onto which I installed Windows 98. That PC was nothing but trouble, and we eventually gave up on it in favor of a new PC running Windows XP. I thought that XP would be less trouble; I couldn't have been more wrong. The thing got wormed and virused to death; I spent 14 hours cleaning all that stuff off. After several multi-hour tech support phone calls I had had enough, and went down and bought a Mac Mini. There was a lot of retraining involved, but the number of tech support calls fell to basically nothing -- the only one I remember, other than getting it on the net when they first set it up, was when they accidentally removed something or other from the Dock. I call it an unmitigated success. One of the replies to this suggested a variant of Ubuntu. I couldn't do that; there aren't any tools for dealing with magnification, necessary for my father-in-law, and at the time of the conversion they were using AOL which also limited choices. But in principle Firefox is all they really need, so it could work.

Email and web news

Consider just starting her out with email and a web-based version of a newspaper or magazine that she's into. This will allow her to learn how to use the computer, and will allow you to gauge her vulnerabilities before she puts her money on the internet.

Another strategy is simple risk management. Assuming your grandmother has life savings that she doesn't touch often, keep that money off of the internet. You could start her off by only setting up a bank account that her weekly/monthly check goes into. This will allow her to pay bills electronically, but protect her nest-egg.