Safety in Internet Banking

Posted by Mike Smith :: June 26, 2007 @ 7:52 am

Long ago you would have never considered providing anything but the most anonymous of information online. Recently there has been significant technological, cultural, and philosophical progress in online information exchange. Financial transactions online are more secure.

As many of our lives have moved online, it was only natural that banking followed. Today, a good majority of our readers cannot imagine using a financial institution that doesn’t offer online access. Your information is available when you desire it.

Anyone who has used an online bank lately knows you are routinely asked to verify your identity by multiple methods. This added measure of security is a result of guidelines issued by Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council in 2005. The compliance date for these guidelines was at the start of this year.

Methods to be implemented are not specified in the guidelines. There are sites that require you to verify a picture you have chosen previously. Others require you to click on letters of a keyboard on screen to type out a secondary password. Some will even send you a small electronic device with a secondary password that changes every few minutes. Every additional step taken helps to secure your information online.

The basic question people tend to ask about online banking is whether or not it’s safe. The honest reply cannot be constrained to a yes or no. A question with related ambiguity helps to put things into perspective: Is it safe to fly?

Advancements in computer security and improved education of users have helped secure online transactions. Increased volume of online transactions taking place daily makes another definitive statement. However if someone tells you that there is absolute security online, they are misinformed.

We have reached a level where banking online is more utilized than traditional banking. Recent statistics show that you’re 94 times more likely to be killed traveling by car than by airplane. That statistic makes traveling by car to a traditional bank an awfully scary thought.