Retail bank Absa is offering clients free PC-cillin security software, valued at between R400 and R600, to help ensure safe online banking.
Bank Internet channel head Carl Louw says cyber-crooks are as busy as ever, meaning the bank has to proactively stay one step ahead. Ensuring clients have access to security software - and regular updates - is one way to close some loopholes.
Absa earlier this year also made Internet banking log-on notification mandatory. "It was optional before, but making it mandatory helps cover all the bases," Louw says. He adds that online thieves sometimes log into an account to first check if there are funds to loot.
Louw says another way of discouraging this practice is monitoring the IP address from where the log-on is being made. He says most people log-on from the same IP address and a change may indicate a fraud in progress.
The alert service has also highlighted some risky behaviour: some clients were phoning to say they were being bombarded with log-on notifications and wanted it to stop. It then emerged they were sharing username and passwords with wives, accountants and secretaries - although the system allows users to set up subsidiary usernames and passwords.
The Absa exec warns that sharing usernames and passwords even with family and staff is a highway to a hiding.
He also cautioned that key-logging is still a problem in hotel lobby business centres and at Internet caf'es.
Turning to phishing spam mail, Louw says "hackers are paying more attention to getting the graphics right. What I'm seeing now is if I update the bank's site, literally a few hours later I get a phishing e-mail with the same images on it, so they are in tune with how we change it."
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