November 16, 2005

The Ultima Device / This Message Will Self-Destruct In 5 Seconds...

Banking with one of the world's largest banks has its advantages—easy international banking & advanced Internet Banking functionality (the ability to edit Automatic Payments and Direct Debits), among others.

While HSBC is fairly unknown here in New Zealand, being part of an international banking group with offices in over 84 countries means even small countries like us get benefits the latest banking technology—including the Ultima Device (pictured bottom left)

Ok, well they call it the "Online Security Device", but that sounds nowhere near as interesting. It's a portable ciphering device keyed to your account information that generates a unique code each time the grey button is pressed. Each device uses a different algorithm and the code expires in 60 seconds. The code is used when logging into internet banking and when making transfers, etc.

The advantage of this system is, for example, if you use an internet cafe and someone has installed a key logger, they'll capture your username, password and a set of expired cipher codes. Without the code generator the username and password are useless.

This is better than a TXT message based system like ASB's NetCode, because apart from having to pay for each TXT (there was no charge for the HSBC device), and most people have a different phone number when overseas and it's useless in areas without cell phone coverage (quite common outside of NZ).

ASB have just introducted a similar cipher device, however without the buying power of HSBC, ASB customers will have to pay $1/month for theirs.

Apparently the device also self-destructs if you try to open it, hehe, it's all very James Bond! lol

Posted by Matt at November 16, 2005 12:43 PM

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