Are Egg's Online Banking Services Safe?
According to Egg, their new Egg Money service that lets you gain more
money when you spend less is the "new way to look after your money
online." That sounds like a great service, but will your money be
secure with Egg?
When you join Egg and login for the first time, you will notice how
tight the security is for their online banking accounts. They will ask
you for the information you used when you signed up for an online
banking account. This looks great, but how secure is it?
Most of the information can be received and used by almost any body.
All they need is five minutes of your time. The login will require your
first name and surname, your date of birth, and your zip code. Egg will
then ask two security questions to make sure that it is you. They will
ask for your mother's maiden name and your "special password," which
will allow you to login in the event that you lose your real password.
That is all you need to login to your Egg online banking account, which
is why some are apprehensive about joining Egg and other online banks
with similar levels of security. All of the information-other than your
password-is very easy to crack. And even passwords can be easy to
crack, as people often use the same password for email accounts and
other accounts. This means that if a hacker cracks any of these
accounts at some point, they can access all of your accounts.
Egg obviously warns customers about this, but many people do not heed
it, as they do not want to be bothered to remember another password.
Egg should step up their security quickly. They have a lot of customers
and a lot of money stored in their online banking accounts-and if they
cannot guarantee safety, this will spell trouble if a hacker or phisher
concentrates on scamming Egg account owners.
For now, if you plan to use Egg or any online banking for that matter,
you should create a new password for your account and take measures to
obscure the rest of your data. This will ensure that your information
remains safe and your money remains in your account.
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