Cyota

Hi everyone,

I have done a bit of research into Cyota Inc, and I saw a few posts on here that mention them, so I thought I'd post what I have found out in case it can help out anyone else.

I ended up searching for Cyota in relation to Lloyds TSB Clicksafe program. This program is virtually identical to the Verifed by Visa, and MasterCard SecureCode programs that are being rolled out by Natwest, Lloyds and plenty of other banks.

Cyota Inc are now part of the RSA security group, they are a pretty well respected US Security firm who have a host of identification, anti-phishing and other online security products that are used by a lot of Banks.

All the programs are essentially a way to make you provide additional ID, like you would do at a cash machine, every time you shop online, or over the phone.

So they are legit (even if https://www.cyota.com redirects to RSA), unfortunately the way these programs are implemented by the British banks is poor, verging on the laughable.

The part of the process where you provide the extra ID online, can be in the form of a pop-up window - now aren't we being continually told not to click on pop-up windows?
Or you may get redirected to a new page that bears no resemblance to your banks website, and can often have a completely different address in your browser, securesuite.co.uk, is one that I have come across.
So it looks exactly like a phishing site!

Try and search on a bank website, or phone them up, for info on any of these programs and you run into a brick wall, the Lloyds TSB leaflet in front of me suggests I visit https://www.lloydstsb.com/clicksafe2 which just takes me to their homepage!

The fewer organisations that have my personal details the better, but the banks are determined to pass my info through another company that most people have never heard of, which represents another opportunity for that info to be lost, sold or stolen!

If they want me to enter an extra password when I'm shopping online that's fine, but I only want to do it on their website!

The whole scheme is ridiculous.

Sorry if this is a bit long-winded, but I feel better now!!:D

topnotch

Related Links

http://securitybuddha.com/2007/12/22/online-banking-making-phishing-better-or-worse/

http://kendes.blogspot.com/2005/11/apparent-phishing-by-my-own-bank.html

http://ambrand.com/2006/09/06/is-securesuitecouk-a-phishing-scam

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/07/verified_by_visa_compulsion/