Hi Larry, I would also be interested in the CERN Howto on building a Live CD. I have my own script for building my own SL Live CD. The live CD is not as full fledged as Urs'; I use the live image only for embedded purposes, but one can always learn new tricks. Please post the URL when you get a chance. I share Urs' opinion that an up-to-date Linux box is secure enough for online banking. Ken Urs Beyerle wrote: > Hi Larry, > > some comments from my side ... > > First, good to hear that you like the SL LiveCD. > > The LiveCD is just build after SL releases a new version. Normally the > LiveCD is not updated afterwards. You have to wait for the next SL > release to get an updated LiveCD. > > The LiveCD comes with a write/read file system. All changes are written > to RAM. Just run "yum update" and the software on the LiveCD will be > updated. This can take some time depending on your internet connection > and age of your LiveCD and maybe fill up your memory or maybe not. Or > you can just run "yum update firefox" to get the latest firefox. Because > all changes are stored in memory, after a reboot they are lost again. > > However, you can save the changes on an USB stick, see > http://www.livecd.ethz.ch/save.html > > This should lead to an uptodate LiveCD. One thing you cannot do: You > cannot update the kernel of a LiveCD. > > Editing the LiveCD iso image would be theoretically possible, but I > would not do it, because the data is stored in a special way > (compressed, etc.) > > > Hope this helps, > > Urs > > > PS. I would be interested in the CERN excellent Howto of building an own > live CD. > PS. I use for internet banking an uptodate Linux installation. In my > option this is enough secure. > > > > > > P. Larry Nelson wrote: >> Hi all, the following article has convinced me to go the Live CD route >> when doing online banking. I had been using a squeaky-clean and >> bare-bones >> Windows XP installation (and the latest Firefox) as a guest OS in VMware, >> but even that method, I've read, has potential security issues. >> http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/10/avoid_windows_malware_bank_on.html >> >> >> To that end, I've downloaded and burned my first LiveCD (SL 4.8) >> and have been playing around with it - quite slick, I must say! >> >> However, it has raised some questions, particularly in regards to what >> I'm using it for. First (probably a Troy/Connie question), how often >> do security updates get incorporated into the ISO image? For example, >> there was just a security fix for xpdf/gpdf and the firefox in the >> SL4.8 LiveCD certainly does not have the latest bug fixes. >> >> And if the ISO image doesn't get updated then what's the best course >> for maintaining a patched LiveCD? I know that one can build one's own >> LiveCD, and the CERN site has an excellent Howto, so conceivably I could >> build one and keep it up to date with the latest bug/security fixes, >> but I'm also aware that there seems to be software out there that will >> let one edit ISO images to extract or add files (ISO Master for Linux >> is one I found, but not tried). >> >> Any thoughts on this and/or does anyone have experience editing an ISO >> image? >> >> Thanks! >> - Larry >>