Securing Banks
May 9th 2007 10:24
Mikko Hypponen has proposed a solution to the problem of fraudsters phishing bank accounts. He suggests banks have exclusive use of a new
top-level domain called ‘bank’. He recommends that registering new domains under one of these top-level domains could be restricted to genuine banks or other financial groups. To keep these domains out of the hands of fraudsters, the price for acquiring one of these domains would be top dollar. This ought to make it far too expensive – and not worthwhile – for fraudsters, who tend to pay as little as $5 to buy a domain to do their dirty work on.
At present most banks use the common domain extensions of their country, from .com and co.nz to uk or jp. And it’s relatively easy to make a mock-up version of a bank’s home page, which will fool anyone who’s not being careful. Why don’t banks, who aim to be secure in all sorts of other ways online, think of taking up this possibility?
Museums have already done it. .museum is a top-level domain only available to bona fide museums and galleries. You’d think money would be as important as art and collectibles. It is for most people.
top-level domain called ‘bank’. He recommends that registering new domains under one of these top-level domains could be restricted to genuine banks or other financial groups. To keep these domains out of the hands of fraudsters, the price for acquiring one of these domains would be top dollar. This ought to make it far too expensive – and not worthwhile – for fraudsters, who tend to pay as little as $5 to buy a domain to do their dirty work on.
At present most banks use the common domain extensions of their country, from .com and co.nz to uk or jp. And it’s relatively easy to make a mock-up version of a bank’s home page, which will fool anyone who’s not being careful. Why don’t banks, who aim to be secure in all sorts of other ways online, think of taking up this possibility?
Museums have already done it. .museum is a top-level domain only available to bona fide museums and galleries. You’d think money would be as important as art and collectibles. It is for most people.
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