Banks Getting Serious About Security

In today's Wall Street Journal (October 18, 2005), page B13, there is an interesting article about how Federal Regulators are moving to require banks to roll out 'two factor' authorization by the end of 2006.

What they are saying is that users on banks' systems must provide two forms of identity - one the users know -Username/PIN - and one they have which is something physical like a Secure ID, token, or other unique identifier that is tied to a piece of infrastructure.

Having just met with a regional midwestern bank yesterday, I discussed the solution offered by Trusted Network Technology where a driver is pushed out to any device (computer, ATM, etc.) using Zen Works, Tivoli, etc. and this driver (unknown, undetectable, and unalterable by a user) is planted on their device and based on the access defined by a role in a directory. In other words, this can be rolled out, solve the problem and be done very quickly (one install I know of took 2 hours).

I should probably mention that I am not a paid pitch man of TNT's however the technology they have created is fantastic, and this view is based on a deployment that my company did 3 weeks ago, and feedback received in meetings.

If you are a bank looking at solutions, you owe it to your management, board, and most importantly customers who are concerened with security and protection of personal information.