Security

Online Security

For Your Information

Banterra's Web site provider, Intuit Financial Services, uses software from Netscape® Communications that incorporates full RSA data encryption to ensure the security and privacy of transactions. This encryption technology is so secure that the U.S. Department of Defense classifies it and law forbids export of this technology to other countries. As a further security measure, Intuit Financial Services utilizes a firewall between the Internet and our Web site, thereby preventing your account data from being directly accessible over the Internet.

Security refers to preventing unauthorized access to a computer system or network. Intuit Financial Services uses several layers of technology to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to Intuit Financial Services' internal network. Intuit Financial Services' security professionals manage a sophisticated networking architecture that includes screening routers, filtering routers, and firewalls.

Firewalls

The filtering router is used to shield Intuit Financial Services' internal network, which hosts Banterra's Web pages, from the Internet. All incoming Internet Protocol (IP) traffic is actually addressed to the filtering router. It is then passed through the firewall, which verifies the source and destination of each information packet, changes the IP address of the packet, and delivers it to the appropriate site within the Intuit Financial Services' network. In this way all inside addresses are protected from outside access, and the structure of Intuit Financial Services' internal networks is invisible to outside observers.

In addition, Banterra's data processor, Computer Services, Inc., utilizes firewall security that serves as a complete Internet gateway and firewall security system, and delivers unrivaled security by design. This firewall prohibits any unauthorized access to the secured network.

Individuals surfing our Web site with a browser that supports authentication and encryption have the option of utilizing Banterra's secure Web site.

Encryption

Encryption provides privacy for the data flowing on the Internet between your browser and Intuit Financial Services' server. SSL utilizes public key cryptography.

Public Key Cryptography

Public key cryptography is a technique that uses a pair of keys, one public (or distributed) and one private (or confidential), for encryption and decryption. The public key can be distributed using a certificate that verifies the identity of the owner. The private key is kept confidential. Authentication-SSL protocol allows for the transfer of digitally signed certificates for authentication procedures and provides message integrity, which ensures that the data cannot be altered en route.

Password Security

The password is a vital part of account security when using Banterra's Online Banking. When combined with your user ID, your password is like a key to your account and needs to be safeguarded.

Tips on Safeguarding Your Password

• First and foremost, NEVER give your password to anyone. "Anyone" means your coworkers, friends, and even your spouse.
• Make your password something you can remember. Do not write it down. If you forget your password, we can reset your account with a temporary password. Once you log into your account you will be prompted to create a password of your own within the password criteria.
• Make your password difficult for others to guess. This is not as hard as it initially seems. See the section below on choosing a good password.

How Not to Choose a Password

Following are types of passwords that could be picked up by programs that try to guess passwords (or the attacker of a machine). Do not use:

• Your user name or login name in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, with a prefix, etc.)
• You or your spouse's first or last name and, more generally, any information easily obtained about you. This includes license plate numbers, telephone numbers, the brand of your car, the name of the street you live on, the name of your children or your children's birthday, etc.
• Anyone's name (crackers don't necessarily know that your aunt's middle name is Kay, but it's easy enough to get a list of 100,000 names and try each one)
• Words in any dictionary of any language, spelling lists, or other lists of words (acronyms, place names, car names, etc.)
• Any word in a "cracking dictionary." There are lists of words that crackers use to try to crack passwords that a lot of people use. Some of these lists include abbreviations, asteroids, biology, cartoons, character patterns, machine names, female names, famous names, male names, bible, movies, myths-legends, number patterns, short phrases, places, science fiction, songs, sports, etc.

How to Choose a Good Password

Coming up with a good password can be difficult, so here are some guidelines to use.

• Choose a password with a mix of lower and upper case alphabetic characters, numbers, and special characters.
• Choose a long password. Banterra's Online Banking requires a password length of 8 characters, with at least one upper case alphabetic, one lower case alphabetic, and one numeric.

Here are some methods of making passwords:

1. Choose a line or two from a song, poem or phrase, and use the first, second or last letter of each word. "You can't always get what you want" would yield "ycagwyw". Throw in a capital letter and a punctuation mark or a number or two, and you can end up with "yCag4wyw".
2. Choose two short words (or one big one that you split) and concentrate them together with one or more special characters or digits between them. For example, "dog+F18" or "comP77Uter". Note that "dog", "F18" and "computer" are in dictionaries but as the passwords use special characters, digits, or mixed-case characters, they are really hard to guess.
3. Alternate between one consonant and one or two vowels, up to eight characters, do use mixed-case.
4. Deliberately misspelling one or more words can make your password harder to crack.
5. Use several of the techniques above.

Please note that if you use mixed-case characters, do not use the following methods (they are tried by most cracking programs):

• Only the first or the last character in uppercase
• Only vowels in uppercase
• Only consonants in uppercase

Periods of Inactivity

To keep others from viewing or continuing Internet Banking activity if you leave your PC unattended, it is very important to set your Internet Banking session to time out after a specified period of inactivity. Selecting Timeout under User Options, once you have enrolled for Internet Banking, will allow you to designate your session time out limit.

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