NSW Teachers Credit Union is the first customer of Australia Post's push into online banking authentication and its token-based service.
Post announced the electronic extension of its traditional identity verification services, called VIP Online Security, last year. The outsourced, token-based authentication service is targeted at the finance sector.
The Credit Union will introduce two factor authentication for members sometime before June, according to a spokesperson. The introduction will follow a pilot trial of the technology which is expected to begin soon.
Members will be given the option of using password-generating tokens, or having their Internet banking password sent by SMS to their mobile phone. Around 90,000 members are registered with its online banking service. With no branch network, secure online transactions are critical for members.
The Credit Union, which caters to teachers through consolidation of their savings and helping them to borrow money from each other, will begin a pilot of the technology soon. The organisation has 142,000 members throughout NSW, the ACT and NT.
The spokesperson said the purchase of the VIP service was in part a response to phishing attempts which tried to defraud Credit Union members.
Sending an account password for a online site using a mobile phone. So many people lose their mobiles here and there and with our dependence on them there are dangers.
It can take a few short minutes to find who owns the phone and theoretically could send away for the new password and login in to their account with out a drop of hacking talent.