Archive for February 7, 2007

New Techniques for Guarding Financial Data

In the 2/6/07 edition of E-Commerce Times, Andrew Rolfe has published an article that discusses ways to use out-of-band authentication to secure online transactions. He defines this as “the use of two separate networks working simultaneously to authenticate a user.” The practice of two-factor authentication has certainly received much press, but out-of-band authentication is a relatively new concept.


Mr. Rolfe discusses the increased sophistication of criminals, particularly through the proliferation of malware and phishing. He describes how out-of-band authentication for activities such as online financial transactions can be used to thwart criminal activities. In particular, he describes how some financial institutions now use the telephone network as out-of-band authentication for certain types of transactions such as balance transfers. The article is a good read if you want to stay up on the latest ideas in this industry.

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