Online Banking : serious answers please.

Hobbes

Ok I use the Bank of Ireland online banking.

Here is the reason I picked it.

When you get an account your given an ID code and a little calculator. To get into your details you type in your ID code on the site.

The site then gives you a "call sign" string of numbers. You then switch on the calculator and type in your pin number for the calc (not the same as your ID), you then type in the call sign and it gives you a "counter sign" which you type into the reply field and then you get in.

To create a transaction you go through the same procedure. Eg. lets say I want to pay my visa bill, I type in the amount I want to pay and then do the call sign counter sign.

If you get the counter sign wrong you get locked out. If you get the Pin on the calculator wrong three times it deactivates the calculator.

They also have some other web security (the usual SSL, no caching). Which is reasonable.

Ok here's my problem.

The bank has told me they are droppping it because "People have found it troublesome to use". Instead they plan to do the same process of when you ring them ( asked to give out certain parts of a passcode and some private details about yourself).

I'm not at all happy about this, and they are not going to give the option to use both.

I was chatting to one of the guys in that area and he was telling me it starts January and I was asking how safe it was, and I mentioned "If I had BO on my machine someone could guess all my details after 8 or so scans" and he said "yea pretty much", which scared the **** out of me.

I can only assume the ones who find the thing troublesome are those people who haven't a clue about computers.

So my question is, what else is out there and how good is it? Who else uses online banking?

SantaHoe

BO ?, does your computer have some sort of odour problem?

But seriously folks....

Well I thought about signing up for it, 'cuz of the strange hours I work, I find it's a pain in the b..a...h...ollix to get in contact with Bank Of Ireland when I actualy get some time for myself.

But I think that at this stage, Online Banking is too much of a security risk...
I believe that someday, some nice haxor type gentleman may 'discover a flaw' somewhere in the security measures, and empty my account.

IMAP, it's just not worth losing all the money you have, just for the sake of convinience.

---

Copyright(c) Dildo Corp.(TM) 1999
All trademarks are the property or their respective owners. If you believe this message is an illegal/pirate copy, please phone weather-dial on: 1550 123854

shank

Well presumably your money would still be there, haxor'd or not. Is this the mentality, I ain't gonna put my money in da bank ma incase it gets done over, so i'll just keep it where it's nice and safe..... under me matress. You see what i'm gettin at, of course some leet type is gonna screw someone over but your bank should cover (up)any loss just like when some scummer runs into the local bank with a shooter.

My bank has just started online banking but the bastids are chargin for it.

---

shank@quake.ie
news.quake.ie

Mythago

I've been using AIB's 24hr onlines for 2yrs or so, access is 3 stage:
regestration no., part of your pin, part of home phone/work phone or CC no.

As to security risks I don't have the funding to bother worrying about it.

SantaHoe

Ok, but my point was that, if the haxor was truily l33+, he could perhaps incur charges in my account, (by say...Direct Debit), using my own details...

See the difference there?

If the bank was robbed at least the bank would know that I didn't borrow £900,000...
But if my account was hacked, it would just look like I performed all transactions myself...
Like as if someone was impersonating me and using my credit card...

And even if they didn't fu(k with my money, I still don't want some spotty little loner knowing how much I have in the bank, where I live, and all sorts of other private $hit....

Hobbes

It doesn't work that way.

You can only give out cash based on activated sections. So the worst a l33+ haxor could do is dump all my cash into one of my credit cards.

But the system also has alarm bells, so if you attempt to give out too much cash it locks you out (same way as an ATM).

Your credit card details are not put on the sight, you have nicknames for each part.

The problem with AIB vs BOI's current system is that any script kiddie with a little bit of watching can get into the system where as with BOI they would have to hack BOI's servers and I wouldn't be accountable for the lost cash.

As for seeing what I make, *shrug* like most f'ing marketing companies know this already (from the **** they send me).

SantaHoe

I wouldn't underestimate the hacking comunity so easily.
They've hacked NASA FFS!
You think some fat-ass, bog-trotting, admin at BOI will be enough to stop them?!

[This message has been edited by Dead{o}Santa (edited 02-11-99).]