Online security measures to the fore as banks seek to reassure consumers

01 April 2006News

Retail banks have been tripping over each other in their efforts to enhance online security and convince concerned consumers that fraud prevention is top of the agenda.

Barclays, Alliance & Leicester, Lloyds TSB, and Belgium’s Dexia are among those making announcements to show their commitment to protecting their online customers from fraud.

“User-friendly” or “ease of use” are the buzzwords at the forefront of this activity, because making the authentication process too complex would discourage consumer uptake. Chris Young, senior vice president and general manager of RSA Cyota Consumer Solutions, said: “Banks implementing strong authentication and fraud management systems for online banking must consider the level of security as well as the impact on usability.”

Barclays has chosen the RSA Cyota Transaction Monitoring software to protect its online banking users. CTM authenticates users behind-the-scenes and detects online fraud while placing no burden on consumers. The tool protects against fraud by analysing and scoring all online banking transactions in real-time. The bank can then decide how to handle high-risk transactions, including blocking the transaction or conducting a manual review and seeking further identification of the user.

Ian Morgan, head of channel development of electronic banking at Barclays, said: “With internet fraud across the industry and consumer awareness about identity theft and security on the rise, we needed a solution that would help monitor and control the potential threats faced by our online customers, but without hassling them or impacting the growing adoption of our online services. RSA Security’s solution strikes the perfect balance and allows us to do just that. The system was up and running in full production, following a simple and seamless implementation project, and the results have been extremely positive so far in terms of behind-the-scenes user authentication, fraud detection and an exceptionally low false-positive rate.”

Alliance & Leicester is to use the Two-Factor Two-Way Authentication system from PassMark Security to provide security and protection against fraud and identity theft for its nearly five million customers. With PassMark, online customers will log on to their accounts with secure, mutual authentication and with additional layers of risk-based transaction security that prevent phishing, key logging and man-in-the-middle attacks.

“We looked at our options, and what we like about the PassMark solution is that it shows our customers that Alliance & Leicester is at the forefront of online security, yet is easy to use and does not require our customers to add any hardware or software,” said Ian Tandy, director of e-commerce, Alliance & Leicester. The PassMark system combines several countermeasures against online threats in a single security solution for Alliance & Leicester.

Lloyds TSB declared that a five month trial of its keyring-sized two-factor authentication Access Code Device, was a success in fighting internet banking fraud, but has not committed to rolling it out for mass use because it is still assessing the business case. The device generates a one time only six-digit number that customers enter when they log on to the internet banking site. To further increase the security, users will have to generate and enter new codes to confirm individual transactions and initiate new ones. This limits the time-window available to any potential criminal using trojans or key logging software.

None of the 23,500 customers who took part in the trial of the device, which generates security codes linked to a central server, have reported fraud on their account. The trial report also found that 95% of users taking part said they found the device easy to use.

Matthew Timms, internet banking director at Lloyds TSB, said: “The response from customers has been fantastic and the fact that nobody taking part in the trial has had any fraud on their account since using this device is testament to the fact that technology if the way forward.”

Dexia Bank, formed from an alliance of Crédit Local in France and Gemeentekrediet/Crédit Communal in Belgium, has also announced its decision to distribute Vasco’s Digipass 810 Unconnected Smart Cards Reader to all of its online users. Dexia Bank’s e-customers will use DP810 in conjunction with the Dexia Bank smart card to get online access to their accounts and perform e-transactions in the new Dexia Direct Net Application.

“We chose Vasco because of the company’s vast experience with regards to mass deployments of strong authentication products,” said a spokesperson from Dexia Bank. “Dexia Direct Net, including the Dexia Card Reader — Vasco’s Digipass 810 — offers secure and user friendly e-banking; turning the internet into an even more trustworthy remote banking channel.”