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SAFE COMPUTING PRACTICES

It is important that you take steps to protect your information on your personal computer. While we take strong measures to ensure the security of your transactions and the confidentiality of your information, it is extremely important that you also take precautions to ensure that your information remains safe and secure. We advise customers to read about these topics and follow the recommended safe computing practices:

  1. Your Privacy
  2. Use Anti-Virus Software
  3. Protect Your Internet Connection
  4. Use Supported Browsers
  5. Trusted Partners Websites
  6. Related Software Websites

1. Protect Your Privacy

Use caution before answering online and email requests for your personal information. Do not respond to unsolicited emails or websites that request personal information. Report any suspicious requests to TradeFreedom immediately.

TradeFreedom will never present you with unexpected webpages or send you unsolicited emails asking for your confidential information, such as your password, credit card, account number, etc. We will never ask you to validate or restore your account access through unsolicited email.

  • Protect your Password.
    Your TradeFreedom password is confidential and must never be shared with any outside person or company, including:
    • Account aggregation services that consolidate and display all of your financial information in one place.
    • Software that records your password so that you don't need to enter it the next time you access a website.
    • Services that collect your account number, login id and password, or any other confidential information, to perform transactions on your behalf or to collect payment from you.
    • Any other agreements you may make or services you accept which include your consent to having your Internet activity monitored.
By divulging your password, you will be fully liable for any unauthorized access to your accounts and all associated losses arising from these disclosures.

  • Pick a password that is difficult to guess by using a combination of letters and numbers (nothing obvious). Never select a password that is the same as or similar to a default password, a previously used password or an obvious number combination such as your account number, date of birth, bank account numbers, ABM PIN number or telephone numbers. If you're still using a numeric password, as of January 18th, 2008 you must change it now to include letters and numbers. Please contact us (1-866-837-3336) if you need further assistance on creating a more secure password. For instructions on how to change your trading platform password yourself, please click here

  • Regularly change your password for all trading platforms and your access to My Account on the TradeFreedom website. Do not reuse previous passwords.

  • Memorize your TradeFreedom password and keep it secret. If you suspect your password has been compromised, please change your password immediately or call 1-866-8FREEDOM (1-866-837-3336)

  • Avoid using software that records your passwords so that you don't need to enter them the next time you access a website from the same computer. This type of software could give other users of your computer access to your accounts.

  • Avoid accidentally agreeing to have your Internet activity monitored by other parties by carefully reading the terms of any software you download and free services you accept online before you download them.

  • Make sure no one is watching you while you are logging on to the trading platform or accessing the My Account section of the website.

  • Do not leave your computer unattended while logged on to the trading platform or My Account.

  • Always log off when you're finished your trading platform or My Account session.

  • Clear your browser's cache after each TradeFreedom session. Each time you access the Internet, your browser automatically saves a copy of the web pages you've visited. Diligently clearing your browser's cache after each session is an important step in safeguarding your account information.

  • Review your account statements and/or online account transaction details promptly and report any discrepancies immediately.

  • If your account number, login id or password is lost or stolen, please contact TradeFreedom at 1-866-8FREEDOM (1-866-837-3336) immediately.

2. Use Anti-Virus Software

Whenever you use your personal computer and the Internet, there is a potential risk of contracting a computer virus or the possibility of infiltration by intrusion software commonly known as "Trojan Horses". Computer viruses can modify programs, delete files and erase the contents of hard drives. "Trojan Horses" can have similar effects and may be able to capture keystrokes, including passwords or other secret information. Spyware and other deceptive software can also conduct certain activities on your computer without your knowledge or consent.

The potential consequences of any of these threats could include damage to your personal computer, compromise of your secret information and the inability to use the trading platform.

For these reasons, we advise our customers to follow these practices:

  • Install and frequently update a proven anti-virus product, such as McAfee VirusScan1 or Norton AntiVirus1. Most popular anti-virus products include some spyware scanning capabilities. Anti-spyware software eliminates the ability of spyware to display advertisements and to gather personal information like your User IDs and passwords. Similar to your anti-virus software, this should be updated frequently.
  • Only accept or download software from a source that you believe to be trusted.
  • Never accept files or attachments when accessing websites, newsgroups and chat rooms unless you are very sure of their authenticity.
  • Ensure you are using a legally licensed operating system.
  • Warning about 'free' services and software offering faster web surfing and email virus scanning: We strongly advise you to carefully read the terms of any free services you accept or software you download online before you accept them. They are known to sometimes include your consent to having all of your Internet browsing activity, including secure transactions monitored. In consenting to such terms, you may allow the service provider to collect highly personal information such as your bank account and credit card numbers and passwords. Your TradeFreedom password is confidential and must never be shared with any outside person or company. By divulging your password you will be fully liable for any unauthorized access to your accounts and all associated losses arising from these disclosures.

Find out more about spyware and deceptive software:

3. Protect Your Internet Connection

There are additional vulnerabilities associated with having a computer directly connected to the Internet for an extended period of time. This applies to all users but it is extremely important for users with cable modem or digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet access. These methods of connection do not require 'dialing' into the Internet and thus are sometimes described as 'always on' connections. Unfortunately, as long as the computer remains 'on' and connected to the Internet, malicious parties have a continuous window of opportunity for attacks on the user's personal computer

If you use a cable modem or DSL connection for Internet access, you can limit this security risk by disconnecting from the Internet when your session is complete, or by turning off the cable or DSL modem. However, if you want to continue to take advantage of the 'always on' feature of cable and DSL connections or if you run extended dial-up sessions on the Internet, we recommend the following security measures be taken:

  • Disable File Sharing on Your Personal Computer

    • File sharing is a feature of Windows‡ that allows other computers to access your personal computer, even from across the Internet. Microsoft‡ has provided instructions on how to disable file sharing in Windows Help (Click Start, Help, then choose the 'Index' tab and type "file sharing, disabling").

    • Our recommendation is to disable file sharing. However, if you choose to retain this option for your particular environment, exercise due care and apply appropriate security measures.

  • Install a Personal Firewall

    • Install and frequently update a proven personal firewall product, such as Personal Firewall Plus1, Zone Alarm1 or Black Ice1 , that can be configured to prevent unauthorized access to your personal computer and keep it up-to-date.

  • Always log off and learn how to clear your cache

    • Your cache stores Web information that allows for pages to upload faster, however there is information regarding how you browse the Internet stored as well. You should clear this on a regular occasion or have your cache emptied automatically. Your browser's documentation and the Help section will explain to you how to do this.

  • Get Computer Security Updates

    • Ensure that you are using a legally licensed operating system. You may be able to improve the security of your system by getting updates to help correct issues that may make your computer vulnerable to virus or worm attacks. As such, you should diligently apply security patches as they become available. Find out more: Microsoft Security (Windows Users)

If you have a wireless network, there are additional measures that should be taken to protect your Internet connection:

  • Use encryption - Enable the highest level of encryption available for your router; newer wireless routers typically use Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and older versions use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). This will encrypt all data transferred between your personal computer and wireless router. In addition, devices without your encryption key cannot connect to your wireless router.
  • Change your default password - All wireless routers are given a default administrator password by their manufacturers, so make sure to change this password to prevent unauthorized access to your wireless router.
  • Change SSID (Service Set Identifier) - The SSID is the name of your wireless network. In order for a computer to connect to your wireless network, the SSID must be known. You should change the manufacturer's default SSID name to a unique name that will not be easily guessed, and has no direct connection to you or where you are located (e.g. don't use your last name or street address).
  • Switch off SSID broadcasting - You can further secure your network by disabling SSID broadcasting, which will hide your network from outsiders. It would be very difficult for an outsider to access your network once you have changed your SSID and turned off broadcasting, as they would have to start guessing the name of your network to access it.

4. Use Supported Browsers

Encryption is the process of protecting information as it moves from one computer to another so that it is unreadable to everyone except the receiver. The stronger the level of encryption used by your web browser, the more difficult it is for unauthorized parties to break the encryption and decipher the message in transit.

The TradeFreedom web trading platform is fully tested before supporting new browser versions. When accessing the TradeFreedom trading platform you are required to use one of our recommended browsers with 128-bit encryption.

Please follow the encryption checker instructions to verify that your current browser version and security level meet this requirement.

Browsers Without 128-bit Encryption

If your browser does not have 128-bit encryption, your access to the trading platform is denied, and you'll need to download one of the supported browsers listed below.

Browsers With 128-bit Encryption

If your browser does have 128-bit encryption level but your browser version is not listed below, you may choose to switch to one of our supported browsers. The trading platform has been tested and currently functions optimally with the supported browsers.

Download or Upgrade a Supported Browser

For your Internet security and best experience, we recommend using the latest supported browsers. Please note we do not support Beta or test versions of browsers.

Related References

There are a number of web sites that provide more information on Internet Security and Safe Computing. The following references are a few you may want to review:

Related Software Websites

Related Topics

While TradeFreedom believes these safe computing practices and included links provide reasonable but not absolute protection, TradeFreedom makes no representation or warranty as to their intended use or fitness for purpose. TradeFreedom will not accept any liability with respect to these links.

1Norton AntiVirus and Symantec are trademarks of Symantec Corporation
McAfee and McAfee VirsusScan are trademarks of Network Associates, Inc
Windows and Mircrosoft are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Zone Alarm is a trademark of Zone Labs, Inc.
BlackICE is a trademark Internet Security Systems, Inc.

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