UK banking group Alliance & Leicester is to use technology from California-based PassMark Security to provide a two-factor authentication service to its Internet banking customers.
The bank said last month that it was gearing up to roll out a two-factor authentication service to its one million Web banking users, although details of the technology chosen were not disclosed.
With the PassMark system, A&L says online customers will log on to their accounts with secure, mutual authentication and get additional layers of risk-based transaction security that prevent phishing, key logging and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Customers are provided with a secret PassMark - a small image and a phrase - which is displayed during log in to a Web banking site. If the PassMark is correct customers will know the site is genuine and that it is safe to enter passwords.
Ian Tandy, director of e-Commerce, A&L, says the PassMark system "is easy to use and does not require our customers to add any hardware or software".
The system also provides real-time risk-based transaction monitoring that enables banks to detect and stop threats, and is able to identify new emerging attacks using neural networks.
A&L is the first bank in the UK to roll out the technology to its customers. Last year Bank of America launched its SiteKey two factor authentication service which is based on technology from PassMark Security.