How Secure is Your Bank’s Online Banking System?

Online banking has become a blessing for many. Imagine the convenience of sitting at home and paying all your utility bills. If you avoid automatic payments and like to have a look at the bills before paying and yet want to do that from your couch, online banking is your answer.

It is not only a simple way of paying your bills; you can also access your account information and study your finances properly. You don’t have to keep going to the teller to get these simple details. Most banks allow you to download soft copies of your bank statements online, so if you misplace your paper statement, you can still get a genuine copy online. Besides, you can also give instructions for certain monthly payments, certain type of deposits, etc that would be carried out automatically.

But there is a major problem with online banking: online security threat. There are many hackers online that are working hard to break into your online accounts and steal away all your money. It is a lot easier than having to break into your house. Hence, banks are investing loads of money to secure their sites. Given below are some basic checks that you can follow to ensure that your bank’s online banking is really secure. Though it is not comprehensive, it is a pretty good checklist.

1. Secure Web Pages
   Ensure that the bank website has all the pages secured with SSL security. This can checked by looking for https:// at the start in place of the usual http:// (the additional ’s’ after http). Many browsers have different ways of displaying it. Some have a lock symbol at the bottom; others use a different color on the URL bar at the top.
2. Password Rules
   Your online banking passwords must be strong and the bank site should mandate that you enter a strong password. Typically the first password that the bank gives you is pretty good, but tough to remember so we tend to replace that with something more simple like our name or just date of birth, etc. A strong password should be alphanumeric with both upper and lower case alphabets.
3. Virtual Keyboard
   The bank website should have provision to enter your password on a virtual keyboard. There are many malwares that detect the keys that you type on your keyboard which is a major security flaw. Hence your bank must have a virtual keyboard to plug this security hole.
4. Multi-Point Authorization
   Bank with good online security will not use a single mode of password distribution. They would send you the password through postal mails, SMS, etc. Besides, they may also have separate security codes apart from your regular online banking password for various transactions. Lastly, most of the e-mail communications with the bank would be carried out on their own mail. Once you log in, look for a ‘Mail’ link on your secured banking page. You should be able to send and receive mails from the bank exclusively from this mail ID. This ensures that sensitive information is not circulated on the public (generally free) email services.

These are the basic checks that you can run on your banking website to see how secure they are.