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INTERNET TIPS New online banking security procedures Fake, look-alike Web sites have fooled countless Web surfers, and in the process have stolen many a person's sensitive data. So it's encouraging – albeit long overdue – that the online banking industry is finally doing something about this continuing problem. Bank America, for one, has recently incorporated new security steps that should help protect its online customers. To assist in recognizing phony sites, one of the new security steps requires the Bank of America customer to assign a name or comment to a graphic (such as a cute little bunny) that, upon log in, will appear on the initial welcome screen. Then, if a customer were to sign in to what appears to be Bank America's site and not see the graphic and name, he/she would know the site isn't legit. Admittedly, it does require the user to pay attention, but it does provide a new level of security. The other security feature happens in the background. Bank America's Web site remembers your I.P. address. (Your I.P. address is a set of unique numbers that identifies your computer on the Internet, and it can be tied to your geographic location.) In an oversimplified explanation of how your I.P. address is used, let me just say that the site can quickly figure something's amiss if someone tries to access your account from Siberia. If this were to happen, security questions that only you would know the answers to, would have to be successfully answered before site access were granted. Bear in mind that I was looking over my wife's shoulder as she was going through these new procedures. And, unfortunately, I can't confirm or correct my recollection from current info on their Web site. I have, however, read about another new security twist that's being tested on other sites. Today, the big problem is key loggers. Key loggers are surreptitiously installed programs that secretly and invisibly record typed keystrokes then sends that information back to an awaiting thief (or, in an effort to police your computer activities, possibly your boss. Yeah). To help circumvent this cyber stalking scumware, some companies are adopting a more secured log in procedure. It starts with a virtual keyboard displayed on the sign in page. You'd then mouse click the appropriate keys instead of typing it. And as an additional safety measure, the location of the keyboard keys change with every log in. This new-fangled sign-in procedure is a step in the right direction and it sounds hack proof but there's a caveat: It's not hack proof. To counter this new security wrinkle, criminals have devised a screen-capturing program that, when installed on an unguarded computer, can take a virtual picture of the displayed keyboard as well as record your mouse cursor movements. The problem of spyware is most prevalent in Windows-based systems, but a March 2005 warning issued from Symantec was quite blunt: the Mac OS X is also being targeted by hackers and viruses. To underscore that point, a Gartner Research spokesperson noted, "Spyware that exploits vulnerabilities can establish itself more deeply in the [Mac] system, becoming both harder to detect and harder to remove. Don't assume that your Macintosh systems are immune from viruses and other malicious-code attacks." Re-printed from Rafu Shimpo, January 2006. Copyright©2006 Rafu Shimpo. Past tips:
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