Two useful gadgets
I have to say I am impressed with BNZ’s netguard card. I had put off getting one for my Internet banking because I thought it would be one of the clunky electronic gizmos which flashes a new code every minute.
But it is just a credit card sized card with a 7×7 matrix on the back with a letter or digit in each square. They prompt you for three squares each time you login, which is very quick to do. Hardly a hassle at all, and definitely more secure.
The chance of someone guessing the right responses on any given login is 1 in 46,656 (36^3). And the chance of guessing your entire card is 1 in 36^49 which is 1 in 1.81×10^76.
The other cool thing lately is that Google Calendar now has a plugin to sychronise with MS Outlook. This means I can let people view my busy/free times in Google, have appts synchronise with Outlook (where I make most of my appts) and have them also transfer to my Blackberry to remind me of the appt when on the road.
The only bad thing is discovering this may have cost me a Blackberry. I have been looking for a way to synchronise Google Calendar and Outlook for months and tried every setting there was. So I casually remarked to one of my staff that if she could discover a way to do it, she’d get the Blackberry she had been pestering me for. By pure coincidence, Google had earlier that day released their Outlook plugin, and it was a front page link from Google Calendar. So she is insisting I owe her a Blackberry for her two minutes of work.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Pay up DPF
March 25th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Can I get a blackberry just for commenting?
March 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Is it just me but my Netguard feels like playing battleships!
(For business banking you get an electronic gizmo that isn’t too clunky and it is quite intriguing that it is spitting out codes that actually work).
March 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I was going to do this synch thing as I have been using iGoogle for a bit but I am toying with the idea of just enabling the RSS feed reader in Outlook 2003 now I know how to do that.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Sounds like she deserves a pay rise too.
Speaking of pay rises – hows the cork count coming? Or did I miss it?
March 25th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
The BNZ are a great bank. I couldn’t stand the Netguard card initially as it was just another step in getting into internet banking. Having thought about it though, it presumably stops theft by way of keystroke logging software in internet cafes. Because even if they have your username and password, they still won’t have the relevant three-digit code.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
In my job I use internet banking for ANZ, National, Westpac, ASB Bank and BNZ.
BNZ is the worst.
I charge by the hour and have told clients that their fees are higher if they bank at BNZ with their cumbersome carry on.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Pay up. Cost of the education not to offer stupid deals in the first place.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Surely you’ll give here more than a blackberry. The supermarket sells them by the punnet.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Your real mistake was to be too familiar with the help. Let this be a lesson to you. She’ll want teabreaks and union membership next. Nip it in the bud is my advice.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Kiwibank has an interesting one. You initially provide three questions and one-word answers to them. For example grandma’s birth place – Basingstoke. When logging in, it askes for (say) 2nd, 4th and 5th letter of grandma’s birthplace – ain .
One wise guy speciified lengthy random strings instead of real answers, and this would further enhance security.
Unlike BNZ Netguard you can change it as often as you like.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Well if you don’t give it to your worker .. you have to give it to ME
Coz even before Google did their plug in, it could easily be done, see here:
http://www.syncmycal.com/compare_versions.htm
(have to feel sorry for this company, since now their product is obsolete overnight).
March 25th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Maybe
Just for you DPF
http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/trey_parker_matt_stone/1
[DPF: Superb. I had not seen that - a good read]
March 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
If you said she could get it, then she gets it.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I loathe the NetGuard approach. I think it is the worst security method of all. The problems are several:
- it cannot be automated (if you use a site like Wesabe.com)
- if you lose the card containing the matrix, you are locked out of your account until you receive a replacement
- once you have elected the use NetGuard, you cannot say “no thanks” and ask for it to be taken off.
I am much happier with the ASB approach (sends me a code via a TXT message for any transfers to unknown accounts).
March 26th, 2008 at 6:56 am
MajorB – I much prefer Netguard as I refuse to have a cellphone. What’s the point in owning a device that allows other people to bother me 24 hours a day?
March 26th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Michael, cellphones have an on/off switch. And a volume control. And you are the one who knows the cellphone number — it’s your choice who you pass that number on to.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:17 am
On Southpark DPF – I ran across this a few days ago – Every Southpark episode for download.
Hey, you killed Kenny
March 28th, 2008 at 12:15 am
I hate the NetGuard.
I hated being FORCED to use it – if I didn’t sign up for one, my account would become inaccessible.
I don’t mind if other people want it, if they are scared about being too stupid to be able to spot a phishing attack or other scam. But I don’t like being forced to use one. I now have 3 such devices.
I used to be able to access my BNZ account from anywhere (home, on the road etc), but now I have to carry around a stupid thing. It doesn’t even use challenge-response, so presumably uses either a predetermined PRBS, or a synchronised clock. Both methods seem a bit flawed.