British banks providing extra Web security
British banks providing extra Web security
Major British banks are set to agree on a physical security device for
all U.K. online customers to use.
This move to two-factor authentication could make customers more
secure when banking online. Such systems use a physical security
device that generates a password to be used only once.
Identity theft e-mails, known as phishing attacks, cost U.K. banks
$22.6 million last year, according to the Association of Payment and
Clearing Systems, which represents the British banking industry.
Precise details of the two-factor device should be agreed upon in May,
with the banks expected to roll out devices within nine to 12 months.
"We are looking to get a U.K. standard for next month," said an APACS
representative. "We are hoping this will enable us to make rapid
progress. It would also be good to get a global standard."
APACS said that credit card issuer Barclaycard and the high-profile
bank Coutts have already issued some customers identity devices.
Last year, former White House cybersecurity adviser Howard Schmidt
urged banks to use issue customers with two-factor authentication.
Schmidt is the chief security strategist of online auction eBay, which
itself has yet to issue bidders two-factor authentication devices.
Not everyone is so sure that two-factor authentication is the way
forward, however. "People are selling two-factor authentication as the
solution to our current identity theft problems, but it was designed
to solve the issues from 10 years ago," security expert Bruce Schneier
said last month.
