August 4, 2008

Banking websites insecure

Research into online banking by the University of Michigan has found some fairly serious security issues that could at some point threaten the security of many users of this online service.

This is a wide-ranging issue and not just limited to a small number of banks, in fact the study is saying that around seventy-five per cent of all online banking facilities are not as secure as the customers may think that they are.

The problems highlighted are:

Insecure Login System

Putting Contact Info on an Insecure Page

Redirecting Outside the Bank Without Warning

Using Social Security Numbers or Email Addresses as User IDs

Emailing Secure Information Insecurely

The research looked at over two hundred online banking sites, many of which have design flaws, which could allow security breaches.

Source [Yahoo]