Two news items that make an interesting combination. The first one is that the Ducth SNS bank will introduce online banking using MSN (buddybanking). The second one: IM malware threat skyrockets (zdnet).
"81 percent of reported incidents included IM virus or worm propagation, of which 10 percent were able to hijack file transfers. Thirteen percent of incidents used known exploits, and 70 percent targeted Microsoft's MSN service."
SNS bank is so proud to be the first bank in the world to offer bancking services over MSN. But why do you think no other bank is doing it? Probably because they know it's not secure and are afraid to implement it. Remember last October, Microsoft forced users of MSN 7 to downgrade because serious security issues.
Who in their right minds will use Buddybankig?
I know! Hackers, but they just won't use their own bankaccount.
I don't even use my bank's internet website for internet banking, as these may be phished. Instead I rely on their dedicated java application. It gives me my last login unique code, so I know this hasn't been hijacked as well.
I think another no-no security-wise is to use internet banking in an internet cafe. I wouldn't have that much of an issue if these cafes were using Macs, but I don't trust my data to MS or Linux.