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San Joaquin Bank NetTeller™ Internet Banking Security
San Joaquin Bank is committed to making sure that your Internet Banking is safe and secure. Our team of technical security specialists works toward ensuring that all financial transactions, data transmissions and communications are completed in a secure online environment.
While San Joaquin Bank works to protect your banking privacy, you also play a role in protecting your accounts. There are a number of steps you can take to ensure that your banking experience on NetTeller™ is safe and secure.
Ways to protect yourself:
- Choose a good Personal Identification Number! You should carefully select a PIN that is hard to guess and never use a word that can be found in the dictionary.
- Memorize your PIN! Even the best PIN is worthless if it's written on a note attached to your computer or an entry in your checkbook.
- Don't reveal your NetTeller™ PIN to anyone else. Your PIN is designed to protect the privacy of your banking information, but it will only work if you keep it to yourself. If you think your PIN has been compromised, change it immediately online and immediately contact the Bank. Call us at 661.281.0300 or send us an E-mail by using the E-mail link on the NetTeller™ web site.
- Don't leave your computer unattended during a NetTeller™ session — click on "exit" to end your session.
- Once you have finished conducting your banking on the Internet, always sign off before visiting other Internet sites.
- If anyone else has access to your computer, clear your cache or turn off and reinitiate your browser in order to eliminate copies of Web pages that have been stored in your hard drive.
- Only use a browser with 128-bit encryption to conduct secure financial transactions over the Internet.
Your computer can be infected with a virus when you download programs from the Internet, launch e-mail attachments or share diskettes. We encourage you to employ safe computing practices that include:
Don't run programs from any source you don't trust completely.
Use Virus Protection Software. There are many commercially available virus-protection programs to help reduce this risk. We recommend purchasing one of these programs and upgrading it at least every few months. That way, you can be sure you are protected from the latest viruses.
Be knowledgeable about your computer.
Stay informed about security issues.
Encryption is the scrambling of information for transmission back and forth between two points. Encryption turns words and numbers into coded language, so that your private information can't be intercepted and read by a third party. A key is required to decode the information. Everything that travels through cyberspace during your NetTeller™ Internet Banking session, from your password to your instructions to pay a bill, becomes a string of unrecognizable numbers before entering the Internet. A key is required to decode the information.
When you request information about your accounts, the request is sent encrypted to the Bank. We then decode your request for information and send it back to you in an encrypted format. When you receive it, your information it is decoded so that you can read it.
When you visit a site that requires encryption, your browser will display a "key" or a "lock". If you are not in a secure area, the "key" or "lock" will be broken or will not display.
We use 128-bit encryption, which is the most powerful encryption protection available for Internet transactions. Strictly guarded and very difficult to export, 128-bit encryption ensures that information exchanged online can only be read by special decoding software.
If you are currently using a browser with 40-bit encryption, you will have to upgrade to 128-bit encryption. You can download 128-bit encryption at the NetTeller™ web site. With the release of 128-bit encryption capability and digital identity verification, you can download a Netscape or Microsoft browser that provides the highest level of encryption commercially available.
Most browser versions let you easily check your level of encryption:
For Netscape browsers. Earlier versions have a key in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen, with one tooth for 40-bit or two teeth for 128-bit encryption. Later versions show a lock on the left side of the status bar. However, the lock does not make any visual distinction between 40- and 128-bit encryption. In these versions, to check your level of encryption, go to the "View" menu, select "Page Info", and look under the line that begins "Security".
For Microsoft browsers. To check your level of encryption, go to the "File" menu, select "Properties", and then select "Security". Another way is to select "Help" then "About Internet Explorer".
We operate only on 4.0 or higher versions of browsers to support our 128-bit encryption. These browsers also prevent any encrypted information from being written onto the user’s hard drive, which makes it nearly impossible for an unauthorized user to access San Joaquin Bank customer account data.
Users are required to have a secure browser, utilizing Secure Socket Layer encryption. SSL uses the highest level of encryption supported by your browser to encrypt all information before it is sent. This insures that only the browser that logged on can receive any information that the system supplies.
Firewalls have been placed between users and Bank servers, as well as between Bank servers and Bank systems where account data is housed. Once requests arrive at the bank, the server is protected by a series of firewalls and filtering routers, which verify the source and destination of the request traveling in information packets. The firewall is set up to reject any unauthorized traffic. This reemphasizes the importance of the PIN, which is the only legitimate entry into the program. The purpose of the router is to keep out traffic that does not emanate from one of only two legitimate ends of a secured transaction: the customer or the Bank.
We utilize the services of a third-party vendor for the operation and maintenance of our Internet banking system. Our vendor employs an expert, third party Internet security firm to scan our Network on a regularly scheduled basis for potential vulnerabilities and to assist with the firewall administration and maintenance. Our vendor meets with the firm monthly to review the past month and discuss any issues related to the firewall system or security in general.
Our vendor has recently completed an examination from a respected third party whereby the third party was engaged to attempt to penetrate the NetTeller™ security system through a thorough "ethical hacking" engagement. The company engaged to attempt to penetrate the NetTeller™ security systems completed their engagement and were unable to penetrate the firewall, and thus could not gain access to any NetTeller™ systems or data.
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