Barclays bank is
rolling out extra online services following the take-up of its
Gemalto security reader for
online transactions by 2m customers,
Barclays launched the cryptographic smart card reader, called
PINsentry, to
customers last July.
Gemalto said not one PINsentry online customer had suffered
fraud since then. "User feedback has proven extremely positive and
Barclays observed that customer acceptance was higher than
anticipated by 30%," said a spokesman.
Barclays has increased the maximum amount for personal online
transactions from an initial £1,000 to £10,000, and plans are in
place to offer international payment for the purpose of worldwide
funds transfers in the near future.
"Our goal was to provide our online customers with an
easy-to-use, highly secure product to protect them against fraud,"
said Sean Gilchrist, digital banking director at Barclays.
"Adoption of the PINsentry reader by 1m cardholders in a year is a
clear demonstration that we made the right choice."
At the beginning of the month, Barclays announced it was
offering full security software packages to online customers free
of charge.
How PINsentry works
PINsentry allows Barclays customers to generate single-use
passwords to authenticate themselves at log in. They also use it to
sign transactions, which provides a higher level of security than
passwords alone.
Users insert their usual chip-enabled bank card into the
PINsentry reader and type in their card's Personal Identification
Number (PIN) code.
The devices are portable and can be used to perform secure
online transactions from any personal computer.
Barclays offers customers free web security software
>>
UK net users 'complacent or paranoid' about online banking
security>>