DOES ONLINE BANKING SAVE $$$?
August 18th 2010 14:37
Every time I open my mailed bank statement there's a
promo offer inside the envelope prompting me to sign up for
the banks "e-statements" or "online banking." The
offers of dubious quality try to entice us with contests and
sweepstakes entries.
Yeah, the convenience of online banking sounds great,
on the surface at least. But what myriad pit of financial
fraud vipers lie in wait beneath the trap door?
The world banking system is fully aware that their computer
systems are highly susceptible to attacks by sophisticated
hackers, most of whom originate attacks from overseas and
in most cases, are immune from prosecution. Eastern Europe,
Russia and China based hackers leading the surge.
The only ones truly saving money when you sign up for online
banking are the banks, at least in the short term. They save
on postage, labor and materials involved with mailing paper
statements.
In return, if we sign up, we open ourselves up to the high
probability that our accounts will be hacked into at some
point.
In the U.S., National Public Television recently ran an excellent
report on this very real threat to our financial security. Yet
another well-researched report on the current state of computer
security can be found in the current issue of "Technology Review"
magazine or online at: www.technologyreview.com. See the
article entitled, "The Growing Cyber Threat."
For now, it's safer to stick with good old fashioned check writing and
paper statements rather than falling down the cyber rabbit hole of
fraud and identity theft.
promo offer inside the envelope prompting me to sign up for
the banks "e-statements" or "online banking." The
offers of dubious quality try to entice us with contests and
sweepstakes entries.
Yeah, the convenience of online banking sounds great,
on the surface at least. But what myriad pit of financial
fraud vipers lie in wait beneath the trap door?
The world banking system is fully aware that their computer
systems are highly susceptible to attacks by sophisticated
hackers, most of whom originate attacks from overseas and
Russia and China based hackers leading the surge.
The only ones truly saving money when you sign up for online
banking are the banks, at least in the short term. They save
on postage, labor and materials involved with mailing paper
statements.
In return, if we sign up, we open ourselves up to the high
probability that our accounts will be hacked into at some
point.
In the U.S., National Public Television recently ran an excellent
report on this very real threat to our financial security. Yet
another well-researched report on the current state of computer
security can be found in the current issue of "Technology Review"
magazine or online at: www.technologyreview.com. See the
article entitled, "The Growing Cyber Threat."
For now, it's safer to stick with good old fashioned check writing and
paper statements rather than falling down the cyber rabbit hole of
fraud and identity theft.
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