Michael Silk wrote:
Florian said:
It's acceptable neither to customers nor to banks. These
days, zero-setup online banking is an absolute must.
Not for corporate customers ...
Not for anyone. In Sweden, where I live, all banks have online banking.
One tried to do a zero setup version, but people wouldn't use it because
it didn't feel secure. The rest of the banks use one of the two
following systems;
1/ DigiPass (about the size of a flattened matchbox).
When you log in to your bank, you need to produce your login name
(social security number or something auto-assigned) and then the bank
will challenge you with one or multiple series of numbers, which you
enter into the digipass to get another series of digits that you enter
back to the bank before you're logged in. Once logged in, you still
can't transfer money just anywhere. You have to set up and sign a
recipient account, and you have to sign each set of transfer including
transfers to any account except those which you have unshared access to.
Each digipass is sent by mail to the recipient, accompanied by a note
stating that you need to visit a bank office to activate it properly.
The digipass activation code is sent in a different envelope one week
after the digipass box.
The digipass box is pin-protected. The pin must be entered for each new
signing, and three bad pins locks it completely, in which case you must
get a new from the bank (about $10). If you break it open, you'll break
the ROM inside (a da Vinci construction, actually).
2/ Scratchcard
Same as above, really, except that you read all your codes from a small
scratch ticket with a series of numbers. Each ticket contains about 20
codes, and when there are only three left a new card is sent
automatically by the bank. This is far less secure, as anyone can use
the card if they steal it from you.
The point with this is that while these solution might seem cumbersome,
customers won't actually touch their money online without them. Perhaps
that's just us swedes being security minded, but I believe any banking
customer would agree to it if the bank simply explained that it's needed
so noone can rob the customer blind.
Cheers
/exon
