Fortify Software Says Online Banking Still Safe,

RDATE:27022008 Fortify Software, the application vulnerability specialist, says that, despite a just-released internal study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reporting that online banking attacks increased last year, using e-banking services is still safe. “Banking online is still safe for most users, provided they keep their IT security software bang up to date and, ideally, have multiple security applications loaded at all times.

It’s just that identify theft techniques have improved a lot recently,” said Rob Rachwald, Fortify Software’s Director of Product Marketing. According to Rachwald, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers/IT Governance Institute’s just-issued report on IT governance global status says that the numbers of security and privacy incidents showed only a marginal (8.3 per cent) increase (from 60 to 65 incidents amongst 749 respondents) between the years 2005 and 2007.

“Coupled with the fact that the PwC/IT Governance Institute’s report also showed that people, rather than systems, are the main issue when it comes to IT security, our conclusion is that electronic banking continues to be a safe activity for the vast majority of banking users,” he said.