Forum Thread: How to Protect Yourself :

This My first post so i just started with some of the serious issues in our day to day life or can say aware you about at-least some basic points.

Online Banking : Two-Factor Authentication

Millions of people use online services every day, and it is crucial that these systems prevent users from accessing each other's information. To do this, they need a way of uniquely identifying each user in a way that prevents users from impersonating each other. This is called identification and authentication.

So, if a password isn't secure enough, perhaps having two pieces of information is more secure? This is known as two-factor authentication and you've almost certainly used it without realizing.

When you take money out of an ATM you have to give the bank two pieces of information – the first is the data stored on your bank card, the second is the PIN. Individually, neither can access your account, but when brought together they allow you to withdraw money.

Some banks have given similar two factor authentication to online banking customers – in this case accounts need to be unlocked with the combination of a password and a four or six digit number generated on a hardware security token. If you use online banking and don't have a hardware token it will be well worth finding out if your bank offers them to customers, and if they do not, consider switching to a more secure banking service.

Hardware security tokens

These devices contain a clock and a number generator which creates a new one-time password every minute or so. The bank synchronizes the token with a master computer before issuing it to customers so the token and the master computer generate new passwords in time with one another. When the user is asked to enter the one-time password into their browser, they press a button on the token and enter the four or six digit number shown on the screen. The master computer will have also generated the same number. The two values are compared, if they match, the user is allowed into their account.

Two factor authentication on the web

A number of companies, including Apple, eBay, Google and Microsoft support two factor authentication to improve the security for their web users. Rather than a single password, two-factor authentication requires the user to enter two pieces of information – their password and a changing value which is either sent by the website to their mobile phone, or generated by a companion application on the user's own computer.