Online banking can offer convenience—and even added security. Our list of the best includes Internet-only outfits as well as brick-and-mortar banks. Here’s how to compare.

Five years ago, Greg Downing looked into online banking but balked at his bank’s $5 monthly fee to pay bills online. This year, Downing read about a Web-only bank that charged a much lower price: free.

“I gave NetBank a chance, and I’ve never looked back,” says Downing, 33, a project manager for Acambis, which makes smallpox vaccine. Does he miss his old brick-and-mortar bank? “Only when I have a jar of coins to deposit,” he says.As Downing discovered after he opened his NetBank account, paying bills with a mouse click is only one labor-saving feature offered by online banks.

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The majority of our clients have now converted to the new FedAdvantage systems and from what we’ve seen these systems are a vast improvement over the old DOS-based Fedline terminals in security and ease of use. But one of the most common questions we now get is:

2) Securing USB Keys – Now everyone that has access to the FedAdvantage system has to login with a USB key attached to the system. Examiners are looking to be sure that those USB keys are locked up and not left out when not at the system, whether for lunch or at the end of the day. We’ve advised our clients to keep them in either a locked drawer or box.

3) Tracking paperwork is still necessary – The new system can kept track of all transcations directly on the system, which is great for research purposes, but be sure you still keep track of all your print outs in a secured environment and, until further guidance is given, for at least 5 years.

4) Figure out your backup options – Yes, you now can install the software on any machine in your office and you’re not locked down to one machine but, what if the power goes out? Where are you going to go? Many banks are establishing a partnership with other banks that are running FedAdvantage to allow them to use their facilities in case of emergency. And I probably don’t have to say but, be sure to update this in your BCP/DR plans!

5)Update your policies/procedures – Finally, now that the conversion has taken place make sure that all your policies and procedures have been updated to use the new FedAdvantage verbiage with updated screenshots if necessary. (It’s picky, I agree, but it has to be done.)

I want to say again that this list is just some of the major items of the FedAdvantage system that we’ve seen examiners mention already. I’m sure there will be more of it but we wanted to give you a head start on these items so you’ll be well on your way to compliant when the guidelines are official.

In our exit interviews, I am often asked, “What is the one thing that we should be focusing on as an institution?�

The one thing… the answer that I always give is… is education… both to staff and customers. This simply cannot be said enough. As Information Security professionals we are often guilty of spending a disproportionate amount of the time focusing on the protection of the network, often times forgetting that every single user is essentially another extension of that same network. Users can be regarded (and forgive the inhumanity in light of the illustration), as essentially an exposed terminal to an attacker. Users can easily and unwittingly serve as a vulnerable biological interface to an otherwise secure network. Think of a user as a modem that never gets turned off. When we regard our users in these terms it becomes easy to understand the importance of ongoing security training. How often do we patch our systems, firewalls, and routers? In contrast, how often do we patch our staff?

I’ll leave a discussion concerning the best methods for training for another time. For now, suffice it to say that the vast majority of all security breaches can still be tracked to down to human error. Yet… where are the vast majority of your security resources spent?

Courtney Treadaway