This Internet Banking System brings together a combination of industry-approved security
technologies to protect data for the bank and for you, our customer. It features
password-controlled system entry, a Thawte-issued Digital ID for the bank's server, Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for data encryption, and a router loaded with a firewall to
regulate the inflow and outflow of server traffic.
Secure Access and Verifying User Authenticity
To begin a session with the bank's server the user must key in a User-Name ID and a Password.
Our system, the Internet Banking System, uses a "3 strikes and you're out" lock-out mechanism
to deter users from repeated login attempts. After three unsuccessful login attempts, the
system locks the user out, requiring either a designated wait period or a phone call to the
bank to verify the password before re-entry into the system. Upon successful login, the
Digital ID from Thawte, the experts in digital identification certificates, authenticates the
user's identity and establishes a secure session with that visitor.
Secure Data Transfer
Once the server session is established, the user and the server are in a secured environment.
Because the server has been certified as a 128-bit secure server by Thawte, data traveling
between the user and the server is encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. With
SSL, data that travels between the bank and customer is encrypted and can only be decrypted
with the public and private key pair. In short, the bank's server issues a public key to the
end user's browser and creates a temporary private key. These two keys are the only
combination possible for that session. When the session is complete, the keys expire and the
whole process starts over when a new end user makes a server session.
Router and Firewall
Requests must filter through a router and firewall before they are permitted to reach the
server. A router, a piece of hardware, works in conjunction with the firewall, a piece of
software, to block and direct traffic coming to the server. The configuration begins by
disallowing ALL traffic and then opens holes only when necessary to process acceptable data
requests, such as retrieving web pages or sending customer requests to the bank.
Using the above technologies, your Internet banking transactions are secure.