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Ensuring you have a secure online banking
experience is our number one priority. This Level of Security is
achieved by:
- Protecting the privacy and the confidentiality of the
communications between your browser and our servers.
- Verifying that only authorized persons are allowed to access
online banking.
- Maintaining isolation of our computers from the Internet.
Privacy
NY TEAM Federal Credit Union uses software from the Microsoft
Corporation, it incorporates full data encryption to ensure the
security and privacy of your online transactions.
This encryption technology
is so secure that it is classified by the U.S. Department of
Defense. United States law forbids export of this technology
to other countries. The privacy of the communications between you
(your browser) and our servers is ensured using cryptography.
Cryptography scrambles messages exchanged between your browser
and our online banking server. Encryption happens as follows: When
you go to the sign-on page for online banking, your browser
establishes a secure session with our server. The secure session is
established using a protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Encryption. This protocol requires the exchange of what are called
public and private keys. Keys are random numbers chosen for that
session and are only known between your browser and our server.
After the keys are exchanged, your browser will use the numbers to
scramble (encrypt) the messages sent between your browser and our
server. Both sides require the keys because they need to de-scramble
(decrypt) the messages when they are received. The SSL protocol, not
only ensures privacy, but also ensures that no other browser can
"impersonate" your browser, nor alter any of the information sent.
You can tell whether your browser is in secure mode by looking for
the secured lock symbol at the bottom of your browser window.
The numbers used as encryption keys are analogous to combination
locks. The strength of encryption is based on the number of possible
combinations that a lock can have.
As the number of possible combinations grows, it becomes less
likely that anyone would be able to guess the combination in order
to decrypt the message. Today's browsers offer 40-bit encryption or
128-bit encryption. Both result in a large number of possible
combinations, 240 and
2128, respectively. Our servers are compatible
with both, however we recommend the use of 128-bit capable browsers.
Click here to determine the level of encryption that your browser
supports.
Netscape Users go here:
http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html?cp=djudepart
Microsoft Internet Explorer Users go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/iebuild/msnie5/EN/msn.asp
Authorization
It is also important to verify that only authorized persons log
into home banking. This is achieved by verifying your password. When
you submit your password, it is compared with the password we have
stored in our secure data center. We allow you to enter your
password incorrectly five (5) times. If you enter your password
incorrectly five times, your online banking account will be locked
until you call us to reinitialize the account. We monitor and record
"bad-login" attempts to detect any suspicious activity (i.e.,
someone trying to guess your password). You play a crucial role in
preventing others from logging on to your account. Never use
passwords that are easy to guess. Examples of bad passwords are:
Birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, etc.
Never reveal your password to another person. You should
periodically change your password in the main screen of online
banking.
Network Security
We provide a number of additional security features in online
banking. Online banking will "timeout" after a specified period of
inactivity. This prevents curious persons from continuing your home
banking session in case you have left your PC unattended without
logging out. You may set the timeout period in the User Options
screen of online banking. However, we recommend that you always
sign-off (log out) when you are done with your online banking. The
network architecture used to provide the online banking service was
designed by the brightest minds in network technology. While the
architecture is too complex to explain here, it is important to
point out that the computers that store your actual account
information are not hooked up to the Internet. The requests you make
through the Internet are handled by our home banking servers, which
retrieve the information you requested from our mainframe via
proxy-based firewall servers, these servers act as the go-between
you and our mainframe computers.
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