Yodlee and Online Banking Services w/High Net Worth

Tonight's 60 Minutes has been covering the vulnerability of online bank infrastructure and a monetary system that relies so heavily on bank records rather than real assets. They were suggesting that a cyber-attack may not result in the theft of money, but rather the destruction of records and thus a disappearance of money.

I use Yodlee to keep track of all of my bank accounts, savings, brokerage accounts, etc. I'm certain the probability of an attack is very low, but I'm also not that concerned because I don't have much $$ to lose. I only have about $30k in liquid assets and my mortgage brings my net worth into the red. In the rare event that I was wiped out by some sort of security breech, I could recover fairly easily. Portals like Yodlee would appear to really open yourself up for an exposure...even if the odds are slim.

I was wondering if any FWF members used online banking services or Yodlee with much higher net worth. If so, how much $$ are we talking about. At what point, if ever, is the convenience of online banking (and/or services like Mint and Yodlee) to risky?

I look forward to everyone's opinion.

nothingevertodo said: Portals like Yodlee would appear to really open yourself up for an exposure...even if the odds are slim.

I was wondering if any FWF members used online banking services or Yodlee with much higher net worth. If so, how much $$ are we talking about. At what point, if ever, is the convenience of online banking (and/or services like Mint and Yodlee) to risky?

I look forward to everyone's opinion.
The fact you use online banking would not matter in the event of a cyber-attack that destroyed records

nothingevertodo said:

It is like keying all of your locks (house, work, car, etc) the same vs. using unique keys and keeping them in different places. Am I way off-base here?
Yes

nothingevertodo said:
I'm really more interested in discussion about those on FWF that have high net worth and if they have concerns about the security. I'm not the paranoid type but with banking services feeling so connected, email history and shared-password usage so common, and the more prevalent use of portable devices to access banking info, it seems like those with a lot to lose would want to be more cautious.
Even if someone hacked your accounts they could not destroy the banks records. I have no Idea where you are going with this

juiceFromGaf said: I know nothing of Yodlee, but this threat seems to be, if anything, mitigated by Mint.

Long answer in short - Mint.com is powered by Yodlee.

jburger said: nothingevertodo said: 1.) You have 10 banks accounts that have no connection to one another (IE: no common electronic banking login, no aggregating service like Yodlee) and one is attacked/destroyed. The other 9 accounts would seem relatively safe.

But you won't find out something is wrong in that one account out of 10 until you reconcile those accounts, and without some kind of automated aggregation, you aren't likely to be doing that more than once a month.

a big benefit of yodlee is that you can see all transactions for your accts each day in one place. so if anything hapopens in any accout you will know about it right away.

also, banks send emails when anything important is changed on yr acct: like setting up a new payee. so you will know about that too. i think the risks of problems are far outweighted by the convenince and the ability to easily monitor your accts.

zmre2b9 said: jburger said: nothingevertodo said: 1.) You have 10 banks accounts that have no connection to one another (IE: no common electronic banking login, no aggregating service like Yodlee) and one is attacked/destroyed. The other 9 accounts would seem relatively safe.

But you won't find out something is wrong in that one account out of 10 until you reconcile those accounts, and without some kind of automated aggregation, you aren't likely to be doing that more than once a month.

a big benefit of yodlee is that you can see all transactions for your accts each day in one place. so if anything hapopens in any accout you will know about it right away.

also, banks send emails when anything important is changed on yr acct: like setting up a new payee. so you will know about that too. i think the risks of problems are far outweighted by the convenince and the ability to easily monitor your accts.

Even better feature (but kinda not very used yet) of Yodlee is, Financial Calendar - it plots your expenses right on full window calendar - much faster to glance over month's expenses than scrolling through list of transactions.

dawhim said: Is OP talking about a scenario like die hard 4?

No, this was the plot to Fight Club.

Who cares about county clerk computers? How about dumpster diving for pay stubs?
I don't think many people keep their garbage well protected.

One significant threat I would worry about with aggregate sites like Yodlee would be an inside job rather than somebody hacking in from the outside. One disgruntled yodlee employee could do FAR more damage than 1,000 expert hackers from the outside.