Is a 2017 MacBook Air safe for online banking and purchases?

Define "safe".

It's not like it's going to get immediately compromised for going on line. Or have your data intercepted instantly by evil doers, if that is what you mean.

Online Banking may be a bit of a stickier point, if the Bank websites require a newer version of a web browser than that Mac can run at Monterey at this point.

You may need something like Firefox if the Bank websites are very strict about browser versions.

Outside of that, it's more likely to have issues on questionable websites than it is on Banking websites and regular secure online stores like Amazon.

If you are thinking of buying a new Mac for this purpose, look into something a bit newer. Something along the lines a 2019 Intel Mac or a 2020 Apple Silicon Mac than can run slightly newer macOS versions if you want to be up to date and the most protected from threats.

icedog17 wrote:

is it safe to use a 2017 Macbook Air for online banking and other online purchases

I have a 2015 iMac that runs Monterey, which is its latest MacOS, and also the latest MacOS for your MacBook Air. I often use that iMac for online banking and purchases because it has a large screen that is comfortable to use. I have access to newer Macs running Tahoe but often use the iMac because of its large screen.

Note that with Monterey, the operating system is mounted in a snapshot that is read-only for all users and basically sealed. So the OS cannot be modified. It is very secure. The user still needs to take care not to go to nefarious web sites and to avoid scams, as always.

Heard from where?

Hacking remains very difficult especially remotely even on older Macs and the older the Mac the less likely it would be something an actual hacker would want to target. Hacking is expensive and time consuming. If you are still using such an old device you are hardly worth the time, effort and expense required to directly hack the Mac.

Also Apple stopped supporting that Mac with main macOS updates almost 5 years ago and with Security patches over 2 years ago and nothing has happened has it?

No, you are not in any danger of getting hacked if you keep to trusted websites.

But by that same token, that Mac is about to be 10 years old and it's not a bad idea to start looking for a replacement. Again, it does not need to be brand new, but something slightly newer than that one.

D.I. Johnson wrote:

What is most likely is that you may eventually begin to experience trouble accessing the most secure websites as internet security protocols improve but your Safari browser does not get updated. When that starts to happen you can generally turn to other browsers, ones that continue to be updated by their developers, to continue to safely access the internet. The Firefox browser is one good example of a well supported browser.

I have actually found very few web sites that don't work properly with the Monterey version of Safari I use on that 2015 iMac. I believe there are maybe 2 so far, both commercial sites (for online purchases at stores). All the financial and banking sites still work with it, at least the ones I interact with. Also U.S. government sites are all still working with it, e.g. for online taxes (multiple states as well as federal), and other government sites as well.

All the government and financial sites I interact with now use fairly robust forms of 2-factor authentication or verification usually on another device. I think they would be very hard to "hack."

For those 2 sites that I did find, Firefox or Chrome work fine (I avoid using Chrome, which almost seems like a form of malware).

icedog17 wrote:

My Mac is still at 565 battery cycles and normal and its still running great,I just heard since apple doesn't support it anymore it might be prone to hacking

I would not use the phrase "prone to hacking". That is unlikely.

It is more accurate to say that, because the old OS will no longer be receiving security updates from Apple, if it contains some major unknown flaw, that may eventually come to light and be exploited somehow. That is relatively unlikely.

What is most likely is that you may eventually begin to experience trouble accessing the most secure websites as internet security protocols improve but your Safari browser does not get updated. When that starts to happen you can generally turn to other browsers, ones that continue to be updated by their developers, to continue to safely access the internet. The Firefox browser is one good example of a well supported browser.

I'll drop these links here for your reading enjoyment.

• Effective Defenses Against Malware - Apple Community (Thanks, John Galt!)

• Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts…and other scams - Apple Support