Online Banking
As more of us are doing banking online, so the scams to take advantage of the fact are growing like fungus, and becoming cleverer.
Let's face it - banking from the comfort of home, ensconced in the habitual chair, and with beverage of choice at hand, has to beat waiting silently in one of the long lunchtime bank queues.
And apparently more than a few of you agree, a recent
Government survey reporting that 41% of us, or as
many as 66% of New Zealanders online in a 2002
estimate, do or have done banking online.
The downside of that, apart from the personal touch some prefer, is that, yes, there are risks.
But, armed with a little knowledge and care, and a few precautions, these need be no more than those you take every time you take the car out.
As you'd drive according to some rules and lock your car when parked, so you drive these websites, and take steps to stop scammers grabbing your electronic 'keys'.
One of the more recent rorts, which is akin to
identity theft, is the practice of 'phishing',
or sending out emails pretending to be from banks,
and containing a link asking you to confirm your details.
That link goes to a website which is a copy of your bank's site, but which is run by scammers, who are sent your banking details when you enter them.
According to recent reports, 4.5 million pounds were stolen from 2,000 people in the UK in the past nine months using this method. An organization monitoring these things counted 1974 distinct types of phishing attacks in July this year, up from 1422 the previous month.
The targets of the attacks were almost all banking
and financial institutions, with Ebay and Paypal
the most targeted.
The problem has become widespread enough for a UK bankers association and an industry working group to rally against it.
The good news is that this type of attack is easily side-stepped. Since reputable banks won't send out emails asking for confirmation of banking details, just ignore any such mail which arrives in your inbox.
Most banks suggest that you only visit the bank online by either typing the address into the location bar, or via a bookmark which you know goes to the genuine site.
Even so, steps are being taken to thwart this
kind of attack. One New Zealand bank is soon
to roll out a new authentication scheme, and
major internet players such as Yahoo and
Hotmail will soon demand that organizations
sending email use a new technical standard
designed to verify where the mail came from.
Chris Walker, Head of Online Solutions for Bank of New Zealand, was recently quoted saying that no New Zealand bank had had their online banking system compromised, and that it was only through customers unwittingly providing details to fraudsters that money was stolen from their accounts.
If that's true, the ball is in your court, and the rest of the measures you should take to protect are ones you should be using anyway, or common sense.
For example, another variant of the phishing attack is an email with an attachment which contains spyware, code designed to record your computer activity and keystrokes, and so send banking details back to scammers.
There are two basic antidotes to this one.
The first is only to open attachments from
trusted sources, and the second is to use
a good AntiVirus programme to pick up and
disable this code.
A good firewall, which monitors traffic between your computer and the internet, would also alert you to the workings of such spyware.
Lest you roll your eyes, a recent survey by US group NCSA ( National Cyber Security Alliance ) estimated that 91% of personal computers were infected with spyware .
Other measures recommended by banks include never accessing your online account via public computers, making sure to log off the internet banking site when finished, and changing your bank website password regularly.
Those of you using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser should also download the software regularly provided by the company to patch security holes in its browsers.
Safe banking.
( Oct 5 2004 )
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