At New South Credit Union, the security of your online information is important to us. You can rest assured that nobody outside of New South Credit Union has access to your account information.

Signing on to view your account information from the New South Credit Union Home Page is safe. The moment you click the "Login" button, your account number and password are encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, keeping your account information secure.

Online Banking Security and You

Online Banking has grown rapidly into a major new way to bank.  The rapid growth has been accompanied by increases in the safety and security measures taken by New South Credit Union and our members.  As safe as online access is, it is important to know that the cyber-criminals are always looking for new ways to access confidential information of others.  Safe online banking depends on the continued strengthening of technology and awareness from both the credit union and its users.

Ways You can Protect Your Account

While the credit union has many security features to protect your information, it is important to know that you share the responsibility of protecting your information.  In the majority of cases where information is compromised, the information was obtained through negligence of the user.  There are some common sense precautions that you can take to help safeguard your personal information.

Strong Passwords- Experts advise a combination of letters and numbers, and advise against using easily guessed passwords such as birthdays, addresses, etc.

Anti-Virus Protection-  Make sure you have a anti-virus software that protects your computer and scans all attachments.  Its also important to make sure it is updated frequently.

Email Safety- Email is generally not encrypted meaning it can be intercepted and read by others, so never send out sensitive information in this way.  Also, do not open unexpected emails or click on links within the email.  Even if it “appears” to be coming from a reliable source, this is a widely used way to release viruses and get information without your knowledge.

Sign Off and Log Out-  Always log off by following the exit procedures.  For extra precaution, it is highly recommended that you completely close your internet brower after logging off any site.

Other Online and Mobile Threats

Understanding how criminals try to trap you is the first line of defense:

PHISHING-  This is the attempt to steal your personal information through fraudulent emails or texts.  They often appear credible but lure the victim to a site or phone number that ask them to “verify” information such as account numbers, PINs, and security codes.   Remember, we will not send emails asking you for information that we already have.  If you are asked to call us, always use the published numbers, not a number they provide.

CARD SKIMMING-  This is an attempt to gain a victim’s personal information by tampering with ATM machines or using small electronic devices to scan your card’s magnetic stripe.  Use ATMs and merchants that you know and trust- and examine ATMs closely.

SPYWARE-  This is software that a victim unknowingly loads on a computer.  Once loaded, the software collects data and sends it to the criminal from “behind the scenes” so the user doesn’t know its happening.  Downloads and email is a common way to get the spyware installed and often, game, social networking and children websites are used to attract the unsuspecting victim.  Up-to-date security software is the best defense.

Other Helpful  Hints

Monitor Your Accounts-  Check your accounts frequently and utilize our online alerts to help identify irregularities quicker.

E-Statements-  Studies show that those who monitor their accounts online and use e-statements often detect attempted fraud earlier than those who rely solely on paper statements.

Free Credit Reports-  Federal law permits consumers to obtain a free credit report annually from each of credit reporting agencies.  Cyber-security experts advise that you get a free report from a different agency every 4 months to allow you to monitor your credit better.  Don’t be fooled -  the place to get your free reports is annualcreditreport.com NOT the one frequently advertised.  That’s just another gimmick to trick consumers to getting a report from a place that appears to be innocent, but by getting it from other sources makes the consumer agree to let their information be shared and sold.   Visit the link on our website under online services for the correct link.

WAYS NEW SOUTH IS PROTECTING YOUR INFORMATION

Online Security Is Our Top Priority!  If you use online or mobile banking, you will be interested to learn that six federal financial industry regulators teamed up recently to make your accounts more secure. New supervisory guidance from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination council (FFIEC) will help credit unions strengthen their vigilance and make sure that the person signing into your account is actually you. The supervisory guidance is designed to make online transactions of virtually all types safer and more secure.

Understanding the Factors

Online security begins with the authentication process, used to confirm that it is you, and not someone who has stolen your identity. Authentication generally involves one or more basic factors:

• Some thing the user knows (e.g., password, PIN)
• Something the user has (e.g., ATM card, smart card)
• Something the user is (e.g., biometric characteristic, such as a fingerprint).

Single factor authentication uses one of these methods; multi-factor authentication uses more than one, and thus is considered a stronger Fraud deterrent. When you use your ATM, for example, you are utilizing multi-factor authentication: Factor number one is something you have, your ATM card; factor number two is something you know, your PIN.

To assure your continued security online, New South uses both single and multi-factor authentication, as well as additional “layered security” measures when appropriate. That’s why we require you to answer a series of security questions, provide us your active email, and identify of the computer you are signing on with is your computer or a public computer.

Layered Security For Increased Safety

Layered security is characterized by the use of different controls at different points in a transaction process so that a weakness in one control is generally compensated for by the strength of a different control. An example of layered security might be that you follow one process to log in (user/password), and then give additional information to authorize funds transfers.

Layered security can substantially strengthen the overall security of online transactions . . . protecting sensitive member information, preventing identity theft, and reducing account takeovers and the resulting financial losses.

The purpose of these layers is to allow your credit union to authenticate members and detect and respond to suspicious activity related to initial login and then to reconfirm this authentication when further transactions involve the transfer of funds to other parties.

Internal Assessments at the Credit Union

On the back-end, the new supervisory guidance offers ways your credit union can look for abnormalities that could indicate fraud. The goal is to ensure that the level of authentication called for in a particular transaction is appropriate to the transaction’s level of risk. Accordingly, your credit union has concluded a comprehensive risk-assessment of its current methods as recommended in this supervisory guidance. These risk assessments consider, for example:

• changes in the internal and external threat environment
• changes in the member base adopting electronic banking
• changes in the member functionality offered through electronic banking; and
• Actual incidents of security breaches, identity theft, or fraud experienced by the institution or industry

Whenever increased risk to your transaction security might warrant it, your credit union will be able to conduct additional verification procedures, or layers of control such as:

• Utilizing call-back (voice) verification, e-mail approval, or cell phone-based identification.
• Employing member verification procedures, especially when opening accounts online.
• Analyzing transactions to identify suspicious patterns. For example, that could mean flagging a transaction in which a member who normally pays $200 a month to five different vendors suddenly pays $1,000 to a completely new vendor.
• Establishing dollar limits that require manual intervention to exceed a preset limit.

HELPFUL RESOURCES