World leading bankers at HSBC have recently updated their Internet Banking security settings to prevent attempts of theft and fraud. Now, in order to enter into your on-line internet banking account all you have to do is – simply – enter your Internet Banking ID on the website, answer two memorable questions, enter a memorable password, then enter another password in a small device you received in the mail and wait for it to give you another password which then lets you view your accounts online. It’s not quite as straight forward as Open Sesame. But while avoiding the ‘memorable phrase’ category, HSBC are on a popular wave of increasing protection on private details. With the millions of cases of Credit Card fraud due to usage of open wireless networks the small Security Device which generates a new code every time makes it impossible for hackers to use your details. The main problem that arises with such extreme measures, however, is that they also demand more of the customer. Now, we don’t just remember our baking ID and date of birth (or some other security code), now we must remember the not-so-memorable names of dogs, cats, streets, schools and what not in our past in a fervent pursuit to defend our own identity in the eyes of our bank.
HSBC is more likely to convince you that you are not yourself than the philosophical dilemmas have for over two thousand years. It’s bold and flashy new website cautiously screams in red letters as you confuse your most memorable pet dog with your most memorable school teacher, until it refuses you all access and kicks you out on the street like a thief. Rejected by your own personality, you must then go and assert yourself in person at your local branch. So we will, sooner or later, all be heading to our banks, looking miserable and abandoned, to regain access to our selves.
While, it need not be argued there is nothing bad in security, one has to consider that with the increase of obstacles to something people are likely to do one of two things – abandon Internet Banking altogether or simply carry all the super-secret codes they need to keep in mind all in the same place, so it is easier to access. Neither helps the bank or the people as two passwords are not better than one if kept in the same pocket and internet banking, if available, is times faster and more convenient. HSBC and its competitors need to focus on achieving a balance between security and comfort rather than building concrete walls at every corner of our lives to avoid fraud, because the walls block our entrance just as inconveniently as that of the hackers.
Frankly, if the choice is between that new, super slick and reasonably cheap bath towel holder and simply not bothering to dig out the little piece of paper with my banking details I’d be quite likely to conclude there is nothing really wrong with my old towel holder and it was just the consumerist culture enforcing such ideals on me. Then I will sit in my bath trying to get my broken towel holder to stop slipping off the wall as I delight in my success over capitalism. Although a personal win, however, HSBC and the economy as a whole have just lost and will continue to do so until there is a safer but also faster way to manage my bank account on line.
In two years’ time all we’d have to do to purchase a book off Amazon is fax our passport, birth certificate, recommendation for our existence from at least ten written references, sit a MasterMind-esque test on our own childhood, attend an interview, do the Macarena and ride a donkey in a circle twelve times. Yes – that’s the future. And they say we’re not evolving.
Mirela Ivanova
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