Peaches Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 April 24, 2009 12:15 AM PDT Device identification in online banking is privacy threat, expert says by Elinor Mills SAN FRANCISCO--A widely used technology to authenticate users when they log in for online banking may help reduce fraud, but it does so at the expense of consumer privacy, a civil liberties attorney said during a panel at the RSA security conference on Thursday. When logging into bank Web sites, users are typically asked for their user name and password. But that's not all that is happening. Behind the scenes, the server is taking measures to identify the device being used in an attempt to verify that the person logging in is the person whose account is being accessed under the assumption that most people use the same computer for banking. Wachovia, which recently merged with Wells Fargo, tags the consumer's computer with a unique identifier, said Chris Mathes, an information technology specialist in online customer protection at the bank. The technology not only can be used to allow legitimate customers into Web sites, but also to block computers that have been targeted as "bad actors," said Todd Inskeep, a senior vice president for the Center for the Future of Banking at Bank of America. CNET - http://news.cnet.com/security/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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