BNZ offered American program to protect internet customers

An American computer security company says it will sell software to the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) for securing digital identities and information in online banking.

Entrust Inc said in a statement that its "Identityguard" product would provide a second factor of authentication for BNZ online banking customers.

The Entrust Inc website said the security system used a numeric grid in a manner similar to a bingo game.

"In environments like banking and healthcare, grids can easily and inexpensively be imprinted on the back of cards already distributed to consumers," said a report on the website.

"Identityguard costs approximately US$2 ($3.24) per user at the volume of 100,000 customers," the report added.

BNZ customers have previously come under attack in an internet "phishing" scam: a phony email directed customers to a page imitating BNZ's internet banking site, and asked for their login and password information.

Thousands of people around the world have been caught in these sophisticated phishing scams, which have been a problem for a couple of years, and several New Zealand banks have been targeted by such fraud in the past three years.

Some have responded by following an Australian initiative to increase security for their internet banking systems. The National Australian Bank (NAB), which owns BNZ used mobile phone text message technology for customers making third party payments: customers were able to enter a randomly generated code sent to them by text message to authorise a payment.

A BNZ spokesman said last October the bank had identified a system that it thought would work in New Zealand, but it would not involve texting.

Separately the BNZ has also been targeted recently by fraudsters using an electronic skimming device to steal more than $100,000 from more than 100 of its automatic teller customers.

A couple who claimed to be from Canada targeted ATM machines in Auckland, collecting customers' bank card details and transferring them on to phone cards to fleece customers' accounts.

- NZPA