Nutty online banking security stuff

[firecat]

I have a mortgage and I pay it online. When I log into the account, this is what usually happens:

1. They demand that I change my password to something different from what it was before. So I do it. I believe that the strongest passwords include letters, numbers, and symbols. So I enter a password like that. Then they tell me I can't use any symbols. So I have to redo it to something less secure.

I have a program that stores all my passwords now, but before I had that, I had trouble remembering what password I was using for this site (because I constantly had to change it and couldn't use symbols) and I kept having to call them up and get them to reset the account.

2. They demand that I answer a "security question" that I previously set up.

3. When I confirm my payment, they demand that I enter the last 4 digits of my social security number.

This seems ridiculous, especially since a mortgage account ONLY INVOLVES MY GIVING THEM MONEY. I can see reasons for using multi-factor security to protect checking accounts and credit accounts, but I can't think of any reason for someone to hack into a mortgage account.

Comments

[evilawyer]

But their data is about the members of the public (institutional entities included). Just like the banks' coveted data. Which is fine --- a commodity is a commodity and there has been no privacy for decades at the least --- but I've been depressingly finding of late, a fact that many people don't realize or, worse, still, understand this fact. "I have Ad Block. I don't care about their ads" or "I only bank on on-line when it's absolutely necessary" of "I only do things on the website if I don't have time to get down to the administration office." I'm happy for whatever "protection" any institution affords me. It's just that I hate the thought that they want me to think that it's all an altruistic exercise designed to protect me and other consumers without any sort of benefit to the institution.