Menlo Park and San Jose, CA, November 10, 2005—To safeguard its online members from the risk of online fraud and identity theft, Technology Credit Union (Tech CU) will be implementing PassMark Security’s Two-Factor Two-Way AuthenticationTM system. Effective Wednesday, November 16, Tech CU’s 62,000 online members throughout the Bay Area will log on to their accounts with a secure, mutual authentication solution that prevents phishing, key logging and man-in-the-middle attacks. By implementing this solution, Tech CU will both increase its members’ confidence with Internet banking and satisfy the recent FFIEC guidelines established for all financial institutions.
The number of Americans who have experienced identity theft has surpassed 27 million, according to the American Bankers Association. “We’re all acutely aware of the rise in online fraud and identity theft, and the inadequacy of password protection for online transactions,” said Mike Luckin, senior vice-president, Delivery Systems.
The PassMark system provides secure two-factor authentication and anti-fraud filtering with a unique approach that uses the customer’s own computer as the physical credential. By remotely identifying individual computers, it achieves two-factor security without requiring the user to have or carry any new tokens, cards or readers.
In addition, each Tech CU member will be given a secret PassMark — consisting of a small image and a phrase created by the member — that Tech CU will subsequently display to the member during log in.
“Tech CU’s members will now be able to easily and confidently ascertain that they are at their real credit union’s site and similarly, Tech CU will have increased confidence that the real member is accessing their account,” said Steve Klebe, vice president of sales and business development for PassMark Security. “The beauty of our solution is that it offers strong mutual authentication without requiring the user to have any new hardware or install any new software. And we don’t make clients chose between two-factor or back-end security — we give them both.”
Tech CU will use PassMark’s real-time transaction monitoring to further increase its online security. This back-end capability analyzes transactions as they happen and gives financial institutions decision-making tools that can spot and stop threats before it is too late. The system can even identify new emerging attacks, not just known ones, using a state-of-the-art analysis technology called “neural networks.” Combining the PassMark two-factor two-way technology with this back-end analytic technology provides long term protection from evolving threats.
About PassMark Security
PassMark Security develops anti-fraud and authentication solutions for consumer ecommerce. Web sites can deploy PassMark’s patent-pending Two-Factor Two-Way AuthenticationTM to provide strong and comprehensive security, without requiring their users to have any new hardware or install any new software. Bill Harris, former CEO of Intuit and PayPal, is the co-founder and chairman of PassMark Security. More information is available at www.passmarksecurity.com.
About Technology Credit Union
Technology Credit Union is a member-owned, full-service financial provider that offers services to technology and business professionals in California and their families, focusing primarily on serving individuals who work, live, go to school, or regularly worship in Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties. Tech CU was started in 1960 and is now among the top 1% of the nation’s largest credit unions. With more than $1 billion in assets, and seven full-service branches in the Bay Area, Tech CU is a leader in the credit union industry.
Contact:
Ivy Widman
Field Marketing Coordinator
Phone: 408-441-4757
Fax: 408-453-0741