Lloyds TSB is launching a new initiative to make their online banking more secure, involving sending out keyring devices to 30,000 customers.
The devices, which are already used by companies to prevent unautorised access to their laptop computers, generate a random number that is required for the login process.
There’s an interesting quote from a reader of the BBC website who has experience of these systems in Sweden:
…the major banks all categorically stated that this technology was nothing they wanted, their customers didn’t want it, and it would cost too much to implement in any case. In the meanwhile, online criminals have literally been siphoning British bank accounts for millions of pounds. The banks have chosen to quietly pay up rather than face the problem.
One of the problems that I see with online banking is that it needs to be reasonably easy to both setup and manage for people to use them – I know with accounts where I’ve had problems I’m less likely to bother returning, whereas the one account that I can access with just a couple of details, I return to all the time. But there obviously needs to be a balance between ease of access and security.