Quote from: silvertree on August 08, 2012, 10:43:26 PM

Quote from: Stephen Gornick on August 07, 2012, 12:24:31 AM

Quote from: silvertree on August 01, 2012, 04:10:30 PM

My question should really be is a dummie on windows safe with bitcoin?

Even a system pretty that is pretty badly compromised is probably still going to be safe for you to use if you are using a hosted (shared) EWallet service where a one-time password (OTP) like Google Authenticator (on your mobile) is required.

But overall, it is really a matter of giving attention to security relative to the risk.

If you carry $200 in your back pocket in a bar, you probably will be fine with $200 worth of bitcoins on your Bitcoin.org client on a Windows Vista or Win 7 box presuming you run updates, have some decent anti-virus installed, are sane when installing software, and know how to copy your wallet.dat to a thumb drive for backup.

Now if $200 worth is a lot for you, or you want to store $1K or more you might not want to trust that configuration. An offline system (with an air gap to the network) booted from a LiveOS distribution is among the most secure methods for using bitcoin -- but that security comes with the tradeoff in convenience.

Thanks I think that helped..I am struggling to find the time and peace to research and get my head round things..
I am definitly going to try getting some bitcoin to try out..Thing is in ireland there are very few people selling them.

Does backing up your wallet.dat onto a USB key do anything if the original wallet.dat on your desktop is compromised?