Security fears stunt online bank growth

[RedEarth]

.......
But Americans' interest in online banking may be waning, The number of people banking online is expected to grow by just 4 percent between 2006 and 2010, according to Lisa Phillips, senior researcher at eMarketer, a market research firm in New York. Why would consumers move away from banking online?

Basically, concerns about security. People still do many things online that don't make a lot of sense - open e-mails with suspicious attachments, give away information to shifty e-mail marketers, forget to log off their machines when they leave a public Internet terminal. But when it comes to their money, most folks display a heightened awareness that seems missing at other times.

In a 2005 survey of 1,000 American adults conducted by the global market research firm Ipsos Insight, 72 percent said they were worried about banks selling their information to a third party, while 73 percent said they had concerns about identity theft. People wanted banks to provide greater assurances about protections in these areas and make it easier to actually contact a "real person" when they needed help.

It's easy to see why people have security concerns. Most probably receive several "phishing" e-mails a day from crooks trying to get them to hand over their banking, credit-card, or other personal information. Recent events, such as the theft of personal data from about 26.5 million vets from the Department of Veterans Affairs, may not affect everyone directly, but it makes us nervous. Even commercials about identity theft, aimed at reassuring people that they are protected, probably move some people toward not doing any online banking at all.

Some analysts forecast that one type of online banking will grow more rapidly in the years ahead. "Virtual banks," with no brick-and-mortar components, account for only about 2 percent of all deposits made in the US, according to The Online Banking Report, an independent newsletter that has reported on the subject since 1995.



http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0531/p16s01-stct.htm

[ixion]

1. working behind a secure 128-bit encrypted connection

is more safe than doing the same thing over the telephone.

I thought that was common knowledge, but oh yeah, we're on the fast track back to the dark ages, I forgot. :eyes: