Staying safe while you do your
banking online

Although online banking has been available to South Africans
for a number of years now, some are still reluctant to make use
of the service.

The truth is that, if you maintain a vigilant attitude, making transactions within your browser is just as safe as doing so in person.

Local banking groups spend millions of Rands each year on ensuring the safety of their online banking platforms. This goes towards developing and updating systems, employing top notch staff and rolling out new security measures such as verification SMSs.

A recent trend locally speaking is the roll out of free anti malware programs for all online banking users. First National Bank announced in July that it would be making PrevX anti malware software available to all of its users via its online banking portal. Programs such as these are designed to work with the users anti-virus program to ensure additional safety while browsing.

Despite this, Phishing and Malware attacks are becoming more sophisticated. In order to ensure that you are kept safe while using internet banking never give your details out via email and always check that the URL in the browser is that of your bank’s before logging in.

Security Question

I have a PC that is running Vista which has become slow and sluggish in a short time, even though I thought I had enough memory available when I purchased it. I am running a free edition of AVG anti-virus, that I update regularly and I have been looking into a registry cleaner, but have heard that these generally don’t do what they claim. How can I sort out my PC? – Michelle Maré

Hi Michelle, Even 2 GB of memory can be too little to run Vista effectively, so simply purchasing more RAM could rectify your problem. Also, get a second opinion on whether you have a virus by visiting www.bitdefender.com and run the free virus scanner – you might be surprised at what you find. A registry cleaner can help, but a good idea is to look at anti-virus programs that come with registry cleaners. Hope this helps.

For this question Jean will be receiving BitDefender Internet Security 2010.