SafePlace: a protected environment to access e-Banking se

Most of e-Banking users use Windows operating system to access e-Banking services: Windows is currently the most exposed platform to attacks exploiting operating system vulnerabilities. By browsing the Web, users may get any kind of virus and trojan horse, not only from borderline sites, but also from normal sites which have been breached by hackers: this malware has been developped and delivered in recent years, allowing criminal organization to get users' data and modify online transactions. The primary goal of any bank which offers an online banking facility, is to create a safe and easy to use environment allowing the customer to securely access his e-Banking account which preserve the user to be targeted by malware.

Safeplace: a new way to access e-Banking services.
SafePlace is a virtual machine which allow the customer to access in a safe way his e-Banking service: it's delivered by the bank to its customers, it's installed on a PC, but its environment is completely separated from the Windows operating system. SafePlace is easy to use, offers a Windows-like user experience, is quick to install and automatically launches the browser to directly connect to the e-Banking site. SafePlace is an extremely light solution: the installation package is around 60 Mbytes large. This size allow the bank to put the installation package on its site and let the user download it in minutes. SafePlace can also be installed on a USB key, by the user himself or by the bank: in this way the bank can distribute a preinstalled SafePlance on a USB token. SafePlace: features SafePlace has been designed in order to have the minimum impact on the normal user's activity. Its operating system is a hardened Linux containing the least functionalities needed to access the eBanking service. Its impact on PC performance is very low: SafePlace needs a maximum of 256 Mbytes to run. As soon as it is started, the virtual machine launch the browser with an unprivileged user. Further, a Web Filtering system permits the user to connect only to a predefined set of Bank sites, thus avoiding the users connect by mistake to dangerous sites. The virtual machine is protected by a Firewall, blocking any kind of access from the external world.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• e-banking
• security
• safeplace
• advanction