Users to Blame for Net Banking Woes

Maybe this attitude will transfer to this side of the pond...

The blame for online banking insecurity is as much down to user ignorance as banking inadequacy, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has argued.

In its Financial Risk Outlook 2006, published today, the authority identified several groups of banking customers that it says present the greatest security problems.

These included a hardcore five percent of users who take no security precautions whatsoever when using banking websites, and a further 21 percent who think it unlikely that criminals could access their accounts without the user knowingly having supplied the login. Overall, the FSA found that the young tend to be less security conscious.

A surprisingly high 45 percent of customers surveyed believe that banks should take sole responsibility for online security. If the banks attempted to move all liability for online banking losses to customers, 77 percent say they would abandon Internet banking completely.