UK high street bank Barclays is teaming with anti-virus vendor Kaspersky to offer free online security software to its two million Internet banking customers.Barclays says it will offer customer a two year licence of Kaspersky security technology free of charge. The technology normally retails for £51 for an annual subscription.
Customers will be able to download the product - which includes anti-virus software as well as spyware, adware, firewalls, parental controls and spam filters - from the the bank's Web banking site.
Barclays says customer can download the software on up to three personal computers for each licence.
The bank began offering free virus protection software from Finland-based F-Secure in May 2006. Commenting on the latest move, Sean Gilchrist, director of digital banking for Barclays, says: "As Internet fraudsters become more sophisticated it is important that customers protect their computers from all threats and not just viruses."
In addition to providing security software, Barclays has issued customers with PINSentry authentication devices which are used with a customer's normal debit card and PIN to verify user identities at log in and for making certain payments.
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