Page 32 - Banking Finance October 2019

ARTICLE

identification which is enough to perplex many potential Yes, the non-resident Indians for whom it is expensive and
customers from rural or semi-urban parts of India. time consuming to access their bank accounts maintained
in India, find net banking very convenient and useful.
Moreover, the global approach to banking that internet
banking permits, makes it extremely difficult for regulatory So, what is the way out? Despite the fact that internet
authorities to enforce finance laws. Every bank does not banking functions are a few clicks away, in the present age
have access to the hardware and software necessary to fraught with risks like phishing, vishing and smishing etc, the
make internet banking possible leading to digital divide first and foremost measure of meeting the challenges is
among banks. For online banking to reach a critical mass, ensuring the safety and security of financial transactions.
there has to be sufficient number of users and the desired This can be achieved through the concerted and continuous
infrastructure in place. The 'Infinity' product of ICICI Bank efforts on the part of both the bankers and customers like
Ltd. gets only about 50,000 hits per month. not sharing the password with anybody, even the family
members, changing it at regular intervals, ensuring to have
Though various security options like line encryption, branch
connection encryption, firewalls, digital certificates, a password as a combination of upper case and lower case
automatic signoffs, random pop-ups and disaster recovery letters, numbers and special characters.
sites are in place or are being looked at, there is as yet no
Certification Authority in India offering Public Key Next is, avoiding the usage of public computers from cyber
cafes or libraries. If unavoidable, it would always be better
Infrastructure which is absolutely necessary for online
to make sure to clear the cache and browsing history and
banking. The customer can be assured of a secured conduit
for its online activities if an authority certifying digital delete all the temporary files from the computer. Allowing
the browser to remember the password increases the
signatures is in place.
manifold chances of hacking your account. It would also be
Banks offering online facilities also need to calculate their advisable to be vigilant of apparent phone calls from bank
downtime losses because even a few minutes of downtime or an email requesting such details; not to give out login
in a week could mean substantial losses. Some banks even information. It would be ideal to use licensed anti-virus
today do not have uninterrupted power supply units or software, not get tempted by the pirated ones as they might
systems to take care of prolonged power breakdown. Proper not protect your computer from new viruses prevalent in
encryption of data and effective use of passwords are also the online world.
the matters that leave a lot to be desired. The top
challenges of Virtual Banking are reflected as under: Many users just browse and leave the work in between and
do not disconnect the internet
connection. Do they not invite
the malicious hackers to access
their computer via an internet
connection and steal their
confidential banking
information. Safer would be to
type your bank URL in the
address bar of the browser than
clicking on links given in an
email. There are instances of
fraudsters sending emails with
fraudulent website links that are
designed exactly like the bank's
original website. Once you enter
your login details on such a
website, they may be used to
businesswire.com access your account and steal your money. While logging

32 | 2019 | OCTOBER | BANKING FINANCE