Press release 11/05

Furtwangen, December 12, 2005 – However, the broad establishment of this secure form of online banking has been rather slow so far.
One reason for this is that banks are rather reluctant to promote HBCI with chip cards.
In addition, customers initially incur costs when purchasing the HBCI package, which includes a signature card, the software and a chip card reader.
Online banking with HBCI is not possible without this equipment.
Volksbank Triberg is now taking on a pioneering role by offering the HBCI procedure as an account model.
For three euros a month, the bank customer receives an HBCI-capable reader from REINER SCT, a VR-Networld card, the VR-networld software, free updates and a hotline with remote maintenance service.
“We are pretty sure that this model will bring a lot of momentum to the marketing of the HBCI procedure,” says Carsten Sommer, Managing Director of REINER SCT, the market-leading company for chip card readers.
Such an HBCI boom in online banking would also be desirable because the HBCI standard guarantees secure communication via the Internet.
This is because the PIN that you have to enter to authenticate yourself is entered directly into a chip card reader and not routed via the PC, as is the case with a normal computer keyboard.
This means that it cannot be copied and misused.
The widespread use of online banking with the conventional PIN-TAN procedure has led to an increasing number of “phishing” activities.
This involves online thieves trying to obtain passwords and PIN information by asking users to disclose their sensitive data.
“If all banks were to offer their customers online banking with HBCI more actively and convincingly, phishing would soon no longer be an issue,” says Sommer. (The text comprises approx. 2,300 characters)