March, 27, 2010

Man-in-the-middle attacks and other assaults on the browser are becoming more common and pose a challenge to the whole banking industry, says Joe Bernik, chief information security officer at Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank.His bank has taken action by piloting a security solution for corporate clients that "locks down" the online banking session between the customer's PC and the bank.

The rationale at the bank was simple, he says. If the Fifth Third really wants to be a "trusted advisor" it can't just make the online channel available, it needs to help secure that channel by responding to threats.This philosophy aligns Fifth Third closer to European and Canadian banks-many of which offer security solutions to retail and business customers-than to U.S. banks, which have been generally reluctant to require or even recommend security features that touch the customer's desktop.

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