Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 26 June 2008 13:10
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
BCU, one of Australia’s biggest regional credit unions, has signed a
deal with TrustDefender to offer its transaction security software free
of charge to all BCU members in what is an “Australian first” for the
banking industry.
When you bank or financially transact online, whether with a bank, credit union or other financial institution, you may well have all the anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewalls in the world, but your computer can still be compromised from unknown threats.
TrustDefender, an Australian security company, claims its “on demand endpoint security solutions” do something unique: being able to temporarily disable all known and unknown malware, spyware, adware, viruses, Rootkits, Trojans, keyloggers and other crimeware when conducting financial transactions of any nature with any financial institution.
In addition, TrustDefender says its GAP (Guaranteed Authentication Program) is able to guarantee the authenticity of a website, offering valuable real-time information about websites to protect against phishing attacks.
Therefore, even if a computer is infected or affected by crimware of any type, when you are logging into or transacting with the servers of any financial institution, your transaction is secure, something that no other security software can claim, according to TrustDefender.
In addition, TrustDefender says its software can both communicate the health status of the PC back to the consumer and to the financial institution. With its “Safe and Secure” mode, all crimeware is disabled so a safe transaction can still continue, and the financial institution can apply different risk policies, on the fly, to a customer transaction if desired.
TrustDefender says its software eliminates the end-user PC from being the weak link in the chain, as it can be today with the latest password stealing banking Trojans, and is thus a revolution in transactional security.
The first Australian financial institution to implement TrustDefender and offer it free to all its customers is the Bananacoast Credit Union (
BCU) with the partnership unveiled today at a banking conference in Sydney. The initiative will start from July 1 for BCU customers.
It does make me wonder when other banks and financial institutions will follow, with TrustDefender reporting US banking interest in conducting trials in the immediate future with a view to also implementing the same security technology for US banks and its customers.
Ray Battle, CEO of BCU said: “What attracted us to TrustDefender was the fact that whilst it provides a new way of thinking about how to counter cyber crime, it has been tried and tested worldwide and has won many prestigious awards. TrustDefender effectively provides our customers with a third layer of security for internet banking, which will also give them increased peace of mind.”
“While we have many layers of security, the weak link in the chain is usually the home or business computer. Often people don’t even have the basics such as firewalls or anti virus software installed – or properly updated – on their computer. By offering TrustDefender to all our customers through our website – free of charge – we know that our customers will have the additional security of having their banking sessions quarantined while they transact,” he added.
How does TrustDefender describe the software's capabilities, and why else has BCU said its has chosen to implement TrustDefender now? Continued on page 2.
