Online Banking

Online Banking

Online banking is a new way to check out about your account without having to leave your house. A lot of banks have now got an online banking system. The system allows people to look at their online details and make payments using cyber-money over the Internet. 

An example of an online bank is Lloyds TSB. Like any online bank, you can perform a transaction online at any time, anywhere on various devices. The site gives you a personal log in number, with a password and memorable information that you will make yourself. Online banks also offer the added security of using ‘https’ instead of the genuine ‘http’ for other websites. This is just an added safety device used to prove that the information being given is safe to do so. It will often appear with a padlock, along browser bar.

An exception of High Street banks, also online is ‘EGG’. The website allows costumers to save their money, borrow money and insure their money. EGG is similar to any high street bank however, they just don’t have a solid location and it is just done via cyber.  

Scams have been becoming growingly common since online banking was introduced. A good example of a scam is the Trojan. Trojans take their name from the term 'Trojan Horse' and are a type of computer virus which can be installed on your computer without you realising. Trojans can be capable of installing a "keystroke logger", which captures all of the keystrokes entered into a computer keyboard. Some specifically seek to capture passwords entered at certain web sites, by capturing keystrokes or taking screen shots of sites you visit. This information is then sent to the fraudsters over the Internet.
Typically the fraudsters send out emails at random to get people to click on a link from the email and visit a malicious web site where vulnerabilities in the web browser are exploited to install the Trojan. The emails are not normally related to Internet banking and try and dupe people into visiting clicking on the link to the malicious web site with a variety of excuses.

An easy way to stop this from happening would be to have installed on your computer recommended antivirus software, for example Norton.

The most dangerous and problem with online banking is ‘Phishing’. Phishing is where emails are sent pretending to be part of a genuine company operating on the internet in an attempt to trick customers of that company into disclosing information at a bogus website operated by fraudsters. These emails usually claim that it is necessary to "update" or "verify" your customer account information and they urge people to click on a link from the email which takes them to the bogus website. Any information entered on the bogus website will be captured by the criminals for their own fraudulent purposes.

Advantages

1.    Online banks are open 24/7

2.    Check balance at home

3.    Make payments whenever

Disadvantages

1.    Risk of becoming victim of fraud

2.    Cyber money

3.    Personal data is involved