How to Fail at Online Banking

This was written by Michael Cheek on Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 13:04.

The majority of consumers who use Internet banking reuse the same login credentials on other websites, according to a recent article on TheRegister.co.uk. A survey conducted by Trusteer, an online security firm, found that 73 percent of consumers reuse their banking login passwords on at least one other website that is less sensitive. Almost half reuse their password and username as login credentials for another website.

This reuse of login credentials makes cyber crime easy. If a cyber criminal can infect a computer with a key logger program or gain login information for an email or social networking site, they can reuse the information to compromise a bank account and drain it of funds.

The data for the report was compiled using the Rapport browser security service, which is available to users in North America and Europe. It blocks users from revealing login credentials to cyber criminals, even if the user attempts to enter the information on a phishing site.

The survey also found that with banking websites were users pick their username and password, 65 percent will reuse the credentials. The number drops to 45 percent when the bank assigns credentials.

Amit Klein, CTO at Trusteer, said “Using stolen credentials remains the easiest way for criminals to bypass the security measures implemented by banks to protect their online applications, so we wanted to see how often users re-purpose their financial service usernames and passwords. Our findings were very surprising, and reveal that consumers are not aware, or are choosing to ignore, the security implications of reusing their banking credentials on multiple websites.”