is it alright to do online banking with a MacBook Pro?

Look at the URL line once you have logged into your bank's site. It should show a locked-lock icon. You can click on that lock and it will reveal the certificate chain used for the encryption to secure everything end-to-end coming and going.

Only current, valid, verifiable certificates are allowed without an error message and a blank screen complaining "not secure".

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My bank was pushing an Anti-Virus package. I called them and said, "If you cannot provide secure banking WITHOUT this package, I am closing my account!"

They apologized and said it was already very secure, but "many of their customers wanted additional protection." Then they revealed what I had suspected all along, that this was a money-maker for the bank.

2021newPhoto wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I had someone challenge me on this today...so thought I would simply confirm...thank you for the reply.

Who challenged you? Was it a pop up on your computer saying you were no secure?

I find when I write a paper check to a big company, they turn it into a check-image and process it electronically.

So if they are going to throw away my good paper check and use an electronic transfer, I may as well use my bank's Check Free electronic payment system and save a stamp. It is encrypted end-to-end and "payments guaranteed".

Credit and debit cards are using electrons and the internet to make payments daily.

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In 1970, the president of Sperry Rand (once a big computer company) said, essentially "there aren't enough people alive in the world today to do the work of the small number of Computers in the United States alone."

That predates the personal computer by about a decade and a half.

Your friend who says electronic banking is not safe is still living in the Dark Ages.

This discussion is predicated on your running MacOS 10.9 or later.

In 2015, researchers discovered that the method of doing encryption in common use world-wide was not as secure as they thought. Over the next months it was deprecated, and over the next years it was completely replaced with a more secure encryption method.

Executive summary: You must be running MacOS 10.9 or later to do modern encryption appropriate for online banking. if your Mac is older, you cannot make the secure connection required. its not in-secure. It simply won't work.

Millions do. Make sure your bank supports secure connections.

2021newPhoto wrote:

No, it was a friend. A real person.

Nothing wrong with being cautious but people bank, shop, pay bills, .... online. Be cautious and make sure your connection is secure.