Online Banking Security: More Sorry Than Safe!

In a recent study of 214 banks based in the U.S., 76% had some type of security flaw on their website. One of the easiest to determine and easiest to fix is the SSL or Secure Sockets Layer.

You can tell if the page you are entering your information on is a SSL page if you see an “s” in the https:// part of the address bar. If you don’t see the letter S, your login information could be stolen or re-routed to another site without you knowing it.

Another issue is one created out of our doing. In our ever increasing need to be environmentally friendly, we routinely chose to receive our statements via email instead of paper format. Problem is email isn’t secure. Now, before you go rushing into your dens and bedrooms to turn on paper statements again, you should know there are worse things that could happen.

There are 5 Critical Breaches to Internet Banking:

1. Secure log-in pages
2. E-mailed statements
3. Inconsistent use of secure and non-secure web pages during transactions.
4. Posting personal information on non-secure pages
5. Inadequate requirements by banks for you to use stronger passwords

According to the study, a whopping 76 per cent of the sites studied had at least one of those security issues, 68 per cent had two or more, and 10 per cent had all five!

What do you do?

Check with your banking institution and make sure they comply with all of today’s security standards. Fortunately, they may have already upgraded out-dated systems. The study was done in 2006 with the findings just being released in July.

Most banks won’t ask you for your password and user id and you should be suspect of any that do. If you want more information on how to protect yourself online, you can go here and here.