Online Banking

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ALLAYING THE FEARS OF ONLINE BANKING

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Introduction

Let us assume that you are an individual born just before the 1950s or the succeeding years after. You most likely have a credit card, and on paydays when lines at the bank get really long... you’re glad you have an ATM card. These cards contain a magnetic strip full of personal information that the user swipes into a terminal to do banking transactions. It is like the concept of electronic banking - only the magnetic strip and the pin code are in your head (if you are lucky, you might also get a device that generates random pin codes / passkeys). Come to think of it, even if you banked the traditional way - with long queues and paper passbooks - you’ll be happy to know that on-line banking with a reputable bank might actually be safer. There aren’t many cases of people getting mugged at gunpoint from the comfort and safety of their home and office. Either way, if you can trust a machine or a bank teller with your personal information - it’s not that great a leap to save yourself time and money and do it online. Let’s talk about banks and online security.

How Banks Protect Themselves

Large financial institutions usually protect their data through a series of firewalls. These firewalls are like filters, or if you’d like a more medieval example - think of them as moats and castle walls. Only knights with the right passwords get through. They screen traffic for intruders and potential harmful activities. Series of firewalls are laid on top of each other in an interconnected way so that if one barrier does get broken - the rest are on high alert. If the situation gets worse, then it trips the last firewall causing the system to lockdown protecting your information. These institutions will most likely also invest in high-end security advisers, such as those who used to...