NEWS - Computers & Technology

By Lou Phelps, SBJ Staff

Oct 17, 2011 - A new generation of criminals is attacking our money through gaining access to our computers - both at work and at home - hacking into our personal information to gain our user names and passwords for access to our banking accounts.

The crisis in banking computer security is now so severe, and escalating, that the Federal government is requiring all U.S. banks to start educating its customers as of January 2012 on how to protect themselves.  It is estimated that criminals already have access to 90% of all our information – they just haven’t figured out a method of automating the use of the information.  It’s still a very one-criminal-to-one-computer crime, a labor intensive exercise to monitor our personal and business computers to gain access to our bank accounts when we log into bank accounts to review our balances or pay bills online.

The problem is not the security walls of the nation’s banks, all reputable banks are operating with secure servers to protect their online banking systems,  it is the lack of secured servers that we are using with our individual computers in our homes and offices that are severely under-protected – and our responsibility.

To provide the needed security, products are emerging. ‘IronKey,’ has been developed by Iron Key Inc., and is considered to be the global leader in providing secure managed portable storage, authentication, and trusted virtual computing - a ‘best-of-breed’ product that meets the highest security, performance, and privacy standards of the most demanding Fortune 500, enterprise, government, military and individual customers, according to Adam Montgomery of The Coastal Bank in Savannah.

The Coastal Bank has secured the exclusive right to sell the product in the Savannah area, not only to its own customers, but to any customer of any bank in the Savannah area.  It’s also a new approach by a local bank to generate new revenues, selling a product to a wider audience than just the customers of its bank.  

As of January, all banks must start to explain and educate their customers about computer security problem to its customers, as part of new Federal regulations that were crafted over the past two years in the overhaul of the U.S. banking system. The FBI and other Federal organizations can not fight the problem in a vacuum – consumers have got to be engaged in protecting themselves. But there is a significant lack of understanding by customers, The Coastal Bank found after conducting a series of customer focus groups this year, according to Montgomery.   

Online financial fraud is a severe threat to all banks and financial institutions. Citibank had the financial information of 200,000 customers hacked recently, that brought heightened attention to the problem.  But the most vulnerable spot is the customer’s individual computer – in their office and at home - something our banks cannot protect us against. Criminals gain access to our usernames and passwords, and begin to spend or pull money from our banking accounts in a way that appears to our banks to be an authorized transaction by the owner of the bank account.

 The banking customer has to take responsibility for protecting themselves, explains Montgomery, who is overseeing the sales, training and introduction of the Iron Key product in the Savannah area.

“The Coastal Bank has worked on this program for over a year, and we’re very enthusiastic about bringing this solution to our customers, and to all commercial and individual customers of all Savannah banks.

The service is being sold in three different monthly plans, available to both commercial and private customers.

Iron Key security can be downloaded into your computer, but Montgomery believes that the more popular alternative will be the use of the Iron Key mobile device that customers can move between their home and office computers whenever they are going into their bank accounts online, or using their credit cards to make an online purchase.  

IronKey solutions range from IronKey Basic, the world's most secure USB flash drive, to IronKey Enterprise Virtual Desktop, a complete solution for carrying a secure computer operating system in your pocket. Powered by IronKey Enterprise Management software, IronKey network-aware devices can also be managed remotely by an organization's IT staff.

The Coastal Bank is offering the ‘basic’ plan for $ 8.95/month.  Information on Iron Key and rate plans is available on the homepage of the bank at www.thecoastalbank.com or at any The Coastal Bank branch. 

Through its innovative, extensible ‘Trusted Virtual Computing’ platform, enterprises and government agencies can now realize the cost-effective benefits of virtualization—without compromising security, according to Montgomery.

IronKey devices are designed and assembled in the United States according to rigorous security and quality standards. All IronKey products are FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated and meet the stringent security requirements of the U.S. Federal Government Cryptographic Module Validation Program.

IronKey is a privately-held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.