E-banking is still open to threats
By Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)Updated: 2007-01-05 10:32
From January 2004, the Hang Seng Bank began to provide individual online banking
services in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other places.
The
number of users has been increasing in recent years, especially in the developed
cities, which has helped Internet banking to become popular.
But it seems
domestic lenders have not done enough to ensure the safety of online banking at
a time when an escalating number of computer viruses are threatening the
sector.
A report compiled by the Beijing Jiangmin New Science and
Technology Company said that during the period from August 2004 to October last
year, the number of users infected with computer viruses targeting online
banking services multiplied 600 times.
In the first 10 months of 2005,
more than 37,000 computers were infected with the Trojan virus or its
mutations.
To safeguard the security of online banking, Chinese lenders have
introduced digital certificates or put a cap on the daily online transactions
allowed.
For instance, the Bank of Communications has a daily limit of
5,000 yuan ($640).
The banking regulator issued rules last March
demanding both domestic and overseas players to strengthen their supervision of
the nation's e-banking business.
"Internet banking safety will become
more complex as the battle between the hackers and financial institutions
intensifies," He said.
Li Xiaofeng, general manager of the China
Financial Certification Authority, believed that a unifying standard for issuing
digital certificates would help resolve disputes between banks and
users.
"It's unfair to victimize customers just because the banks shift
their responsibilities by promoting certificate systems, such as U-key and
USBkey," he said.
A third party, independent from banks and users, is
needed to unify the certificate standards, he said, and in future users would
need only one security certificate to conduct online transactions at different
banks.
"Online banking security urgently needs protection laws," Li
said.
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