Security changes coming to your bank!

Banks will be instituting a variety of new identification and authorization methods in 2007. This article by Sherry Slater covers many of the ways and means that banks will be beefing up their security, apparently in response to guidelines issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Some of methods of choice include:

• Pictures and phrases chosen by the user and displayed when
  they login - to prevent phishing attacks
• Identifying the user's computer(s) based on unique
  identifiers - to prove the user's identity
• Use of an expanded selection of questions - to
  prove the user's identity
• Use of transaction tracking software - to red flag
  suspicious activity
• One-time passwords - to authorize especially large
  transactions

The second to last paragraph was probably the most pertinent:
"No amount of security and software on the bank’s part can make up for carelessness on customers’ parts, however."

Chalmer