Online Banking And Bill Pay – How To Preserve Your Personal Info

Online banking and bill pay are becoming increasingly popular as people discover that they can do everything they need to do from home on their computer.  It is convenient and easy, allowing customers to manage their finances from home.  However the biggest question that consumers ask in regards to banking online is “is it safe?”  Hopefully after getting a little more information you will see that it is a safe option for you.

Statistically speaking, banking and paying bills online can be safer and more secure than the methods you may be using now.  With online banking there isn’t a paper trail that someone who is going through your trash could discover.  When you bank online there is an electronic record of everything you do.  This means you can see right on your computer the purchase you just made, or the bill you just paid, and track those things with plenty of accuracy.  This is becoming more and more important as hackers and thieves are trying to steal not only your personal information and money, but also your identity and social security numbers.  By closely watching your accounts online, you will be more quickly able to identify if there is a problem, then if you wait for your monthly statement in the mail.

However, there are some important things to look for in a reliable online banking relationship.  The first is to make sure that the bank is legitimate.  You want to find a bank that says that your deposits are federally insured.  Be sure to check the bank’s history on their web site in the “About Us” section.  This should describe the bank’s history and the official name and address of the bank’s headquarters, as well as information about its insurance coverage from the FDIC.

Also make sure to choose a bank that has a high level of encryption.  There are two different ways to categorize encryption schemes.  These are symmetric, or asymmetric.  Symmetric key algorithms such as DES, AES, and Blowfish, work with one prearranged key that they share between the sender and the receiver.  This key encrypts as well as decrypts text.  In asymmetric schemes, such as RSA and Diffie-Hellman, a “key pair” is created for the users, which are a public and a private key.  The public key is able to be published online so that senders can use it to encrypt text that will be sent to the owner of the public key.  The cyphertext cannot be decrypted once it has been encrypted, except by the person who has the private key of that key pair.  This algorithm only works when the two keys are working together.  Asymmetric encryption is thought to be one step more secure than symmetric encryption due to the fact that the decryption key can be kept private.  Higher bit encryption is better for your security, especially when you are talking about your most private and valued information.

The network architecture used in online banking services was designed by the brightest minds in network technology.  The computers that store your actual account information are not directly linked to the Internet.  Online banking web servers receive transactions initiated through the Internet, and those servers route your transaction through firewall servers.

These firewall servers act as a traffic cop between segments of the online banking network used to store information, and the Internet.  This system isolates the publicly accessible web servers from data that is stored on the online banking network servers, and makes sure that only authorized requests are processed.

There are also various access control mechanisms that include intrusion detection and anti-virus, that monitor and protect the systems from potential hackers.  The online banking servers also provide uninterruptible access, even in the event of various types of failures, to ensure that something will not go wrong.

There are many unsafe activities online, but online banking isn’t one of them.  There are very sophisticated and unique systems in place to prevent anyone from gaining access to your accounts.