Security Statement
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This Internet Banking System brings together a combination of industry-approved security technologies to protect data for the bank and for you, our customer. It features password-controlled system entry, a VeriSign-issued Digital ID for the bank’s server, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for data encryption, and a router loaded with a firewall to regulate the inflow and outflow of server traffic.
Please remember that The First will never send emails regarding account deactivation, account lockouts, or other problems with your account. Nor will The First ever send emails asking you to provide, update, or verify your personal, business, account, or other confidential information. You should never respond to any unsolicited request for your login information.
Secure Access and Verifying User Authenticity
To begin a session with The First’s server the user must key in a Log-in ID and a password. Our system, the Internet Banking System, uses a “3 strikes and you’re out” lock-out mechanism to deter users from repeated login attempts. After three unsuccessful login attempts, the system locks the user out, requiring either a designated wait period or a phone call to the bank to verify the password before re-entry into the system. Upon successful login, the Digital ID from VeriSign, the experts in digital identification certificates, authenticates the user’s identity and establishes a secure session with that visitor.
Secure Data Transfer
Once the server session is established, the user and the server are in a secured environment. Because the server has been certified as a 128-bit secure server by VeriSign, data traveling between the user and the server is encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. With SSL, data that travels between the bank and customer is encrypted and can only be decrypted with the public and private key pair. In short, The First’s server issues a public key to the end user’s browser and creates a temporary private key. These two keys are the only combination possible for that session. When the session is complete, the keys expire and the whole process starts over when a new end-user makes a server session.
The level of encryption used by the secure socket layer may vary depending on the version of browser that the customer is using. Every browser that supports SSL also supports a specific bit level of encryption. The higher the bit level, the higher the encryption level, and therefore the more secure the transaction. The standard bit levels of encryption range from 40-bit to 128-bit. The First encourages its customers to use the 128-bit encryption or the highest bit level of encryption that their browser supports. This usually requires some type of update that is available from the maker of the Internet browser software.
Router and Firewall
Requests must filter through a router and firewall before they are permitted to reach the server. A router, a piece of hardware, works in conjunction with the firewall, a piece of software, to block and direct traffic coming to the server. The configuration begins by disallowing ALL traffic and then opens holes only when necessary to process acceptable data requests, such as retrieving web pages or sending customer requests to the bank.
Using the above technologies, your Internet banking transactions are secure.