Monty Solomon wrote:
> By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | December 29, 2006
> People who do their online banking with Cambridge Savings Bank will
> find it a little harder to log on in the New Year. But bank
> executives don't think the customers will mind. It's for their own
> good -- and besides, it's the law.
> A federal regulation mandating tougher online financial security
> measures will take effect Monday. Banks, credit unions, and other
> financial institutions must begin using enhanced technologies to
> protect customer data against identity theft. Many of the nation's
> biggest banks, including Bank of America, have already introduced
> "multi factor" authentication systems that go well beyond the
> traditional user name and password approach to prevent Internet
> fraud. Other smaller banks, which buy their online banking services
> from independent contractors, are scrambling to meet the coming
> deadline.
> Mark Tracy, senior vice president of back technology and operations
> at Cambridge Savings, said his company has been testing its new
> authentication system for the past two months, with help from
> customers who've agreed to try it. "It's been pretty successful so
> far," said Tracy. "In January, we'll be making it mandatory."
> Cambridge Savings customers will receive a user name and password when
> they sign up for the service. In addition, the first time a customer
> uses his home or work computer to do some banking, the machine is
> given a unique digital "fingerprint" associated with the customer's
> password. Whenever he banks with that computer, the bank software
> checks his user name, password, and computer fingerprint before
> processing the transaction.
> If someone tries to log in from a machine that isn't fingerprinted,
> the bank will send a confirmation message to the customer's e-mail
> address. A crook who's stolen somebody's user name and password
> probably won't have access to the victim's e-mail account, so he can't
> reply to the message, and won't be allowed to log in.
> http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/12/29/as_deadline_nears_banks_toughen_net_protections/
Our credit union several months ago set up a requirement that will ask
you different questions when you log on, that you set up earlier, plus
now when you log on you will know it is th real site, since you can
setup a banner that will appear in your log on with the computer you
set it up with, I that is the fingerprint. I use two computers with
my credit union and they each ID with the banner I set up, plus my
Palm Pilot Cell phone also has its own banner. A while back I got an
e-mail that was supposed to be from my credit union, I don't link from
e-mails, I use my browsers links. Just for the heck of it, I used the
link and the site almost looked real, with the exception of the (c)
being the wrong year and a lot of misspelled words, like the 'hte' and
to 'ot'. The credit union was aware of it and shortly the site went
away. I get e-mail telling me by BofA account has problems, I don't
even use them.
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
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Steven Lichter (diespammers@ikillspammers.com)