Few UK banks offer two factor authentication
According to new research from the consumers' association Which?, a number of major UK banks have failed to protect their customers online by not adopting two-factor security, which greatly protects against online banking fraud.
The association tested the customer-side security of 11 banks, revealing that over half had failed to implement two-factor ID checks on customers when they logged into their accounts. Lloyds Banking Group, Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Santander and TSB were the banks which scored the lowest on the tests conducted by Which?.
To make matters worse, this is the fourth year in a row that these particular financial institutions came in at the bottom of the tests to determine overall online security.
The annual tests continue to shed light on how bank fraud has increased significantly during recent years. In 2014-2015, losses from bank fraud grew by 64 percent to reach a total of £133.5 million for online banking and £323.3 million for banking conducted over the phone. Despite these increased loses, few banks have introduced additional security measures in order to offer their customers more protection from fraud.
The managing director of Which? Home & Legal, Alex Neill, offers further insight into how the association conducts its annual tests of the online security of banks, saying: "The best banks in our test manage to use two-factor authentication without it being too onerous for their customers, so there's no excuse for others to sacrifice security. Online banking is increasingly part of our daily lives and at the same time online scams are becoming more sophisticated. People can only do so much to protect themselves from fraud, it's time for banks to shoulder more of the responsibility and introduce extra protections to safeguard their customers".
The full results of the tests conducted by Which? are available online and show just how well the 11 high street banks stack up when it comes to online security.
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