Citizens, keep your money in … Internet! Several words about safety in the net

Though we live in the 21st century long enough a lot of people still live with survivals of the last century and consider each novelty with significant part of skepticism. As far as it concerns electronic commerce you can feel these survivals most of all. If on the West payments through financial institutions are very popular and in our Runet business the state of things are not so optimistic. Mainly residents of large megalopolises use e-payment systems but progress reaches the backwoods’ people in scanty percentage ratio. And what circumstances prevent our Ivans from giving themselves to the world of momentary payments and comfort which the whole civilization applies now? As it turned out the reasons are hackneyed ignorance and fear to be thieved. However it is worth to notice that at correct usage of safety system’s instruments the possibility to steal funds from the accounts will be decreased down to hundredth part of percent. Let’s review the main safety instruments commonly applied by state-of-art payment systems.

Data encoding. Most part of people is scared that the data may be lost by payment services’ supplier itself. But there is nothing to worry about. Every modern financial institution has provided with data encoding system. A great number of Russian systems use RSA algorithm but SSL protocols are also popular. It is common opinion that the longer key you have the more complicate is to decode it. Usually such keys are kept on portable data mediums called as tokens.

Taking about portable data mediums which you have entrusted to keep your keys you must remember and observe the following recommendations :
- Hold your portable mediums in a reliable place beyond reach of strangers ;
- Use mediums only at direct input of keys and passwords ;
- Duplicate data kept on portable medium.

The most frequent and repeated problem with tokens is their loss. Resume is clear without any words.

Switching to personal safety we review several ways to secure you and your e-money.

The most spreading way is authentication, more known as couple “login-password”. This security method is the easiest one and used with all payments systems in Internet. But it is not reasonable to rely on this method of protection solely. Easy in usage it is easy at decoding of accounts as well. Ordinary users of Internet do not notice themselves as they have infected their computers with all kinds of viruses and trojans which may be easily picked up at downloading of songs, programs or even when you pass to the link sent to you by somebody assuring that if you do not see IT your life will be useless. Picked up virus quickly find its aim and leave there waiting when you will input your data next time and it can send them to its master. Subsequent activities will take only a minute.

How to prevent it?

First of all your data shall be known nobody except you. It is highly recommended not to give the data to anybody even to your closest persons (in your opinion). You must use antivirus. All leading payment systems advise to use Kaspersky as its bases of viruses update more frequently and content more information. Also they recommend using firewalls which assist you to protect your computer from hacker’s attacks.

Fields to be filled in automatically may do someone a bad turn. Very convenient at using of some resources they can lead to deplorable results in case of the payment systems. Also it is recommended to use virtual keyboard provided by payment system. It helps to secure data of key-loggers if they have been installed on your computer.

Never click on any links receiving from strangers even if in the address field you see name of your payment system. It is important to remember that none of payment systems sends links to its clients.

Searching of easy money some naive users download on the forums the different programs for cracking e-purses of the other users or for increasing of funds on their accounts. We think it is not worth to explain what and where may be free…

And in conclusion we would like to give one more advise. Change passwords to your accounts as frequently as possible. We recommend using complex passwords consisting of upper case and lower case letters as well as figures.

SMS authentication. Having selected this method of authentication each time you will try to enter to your account you will be sent access code on your phone. Entry by robber to your account in the payment system becomes possibly only if your phone would be in robber’s hands. But if you lose your phone you will lose control under your account as well. Though you can always recover your sim-card.

One more common method is IP control. System remembered initial IP-address and at attempt to enter to the account from another address it automatically block the account and simultaneously send PIN-code for unblocking of the account to e-mail specified during registration. In this case ill-wisher for stealing your funds needs to know your e-mail. You can set a function of access from specified IP-addresses and access from any other address will be blocked but your IP-address may be changed as well. So there is something to think about.

E-mail and sms notifications – at activation of this service you will get to your e-mail or phone notifications concerning all operations on your account from the moment of entering to the account till withdrawing of funds.

E-payment system WebMoney offers its users the system e-Num, system of authorization provides access to WebMoney system’s services by means of secure key (unique codebook) which keeps in mobile phone/pocket computer or in biometric identification device of the user. System allows keeping WM Keeper program keys in its database that gives an opportunity to use your e-purses as well as Webmoney services practically on any computer absolutely safety. But as well as any other data e-Num may be stolen.

Also WebMoney system and other payment systems commonly use root certificates, access to which significantly decrease risk to be stripped of everything. It is convenient but there is just one shag and may be it is not only one. Root certificates are sometimes not compatible with browser and applied software.

Access cards (code cards). Some systems use graphic images which are hard to intercept for authentication, for example, code cards. Their principle of operation is very simple. You receive a message with a graphic picture and system asks you to say any combination specified exact coordinates of its components, for example D3H1J3C5, and the required reply will be 5VQ4. Advantages of these cards are evident but what will you do if this card is lost or stolen?

Fingerprint identification or Dactylography. Biometric systems are used so long in the juridical system, for example for crime detection but they became widespread at the beginning of the first decade of 21st century when in 2003 in Europe and USA simultaneously several systems installed terminals where one could pay by using fingerprint. System scans a picture of fingerprint then sends request to a bank, verifies account’s owner and after that withdraws the required amount from the account. Financial institutions of Internet do not stand aside of using of such method. For instance PayByTouch company specialize solely on such kind of payments. Recently the same WebMoney system activates such type of payment. Advantages of this method are clear. The pattern of fingerprint is unique that’s why it must not and may not be repeated. Moreover purse, credit card, token you may forget at home (in the office or car…..) but your fingerprints are always with you. But in the last year there was a scandal when German hackers put online a fingerprint of Wolfgang Shoible, Minister of the Interior. And thousands of identical cases have been already happened. In other words having trapped your fingerprint intruders can copy it and……..say goodbye to your money.

So, as we can see there are a lot of tools to secure oneself and money online. But for the human factor those tools are enough to guarantee the security of your account. Though human factor existed, exists and will exist. Thus we advise you to combine several protection means to provide the optimal protection. Modern payment systems usually provide several protection tools at once so you may choose from them. Well, for example you may choose IP control, and code card. Also we strongly recommend you to enable e-mail or SMS notifications. Probably those notifications are a little bit annoying though with them you will feel as safe as in God's pocket. And the main thing is your attention. Be watchful and do not neglect any advices.

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