Be Aware of Email Scams

Washington Federal has become aware of a "phishing" scam that is directed at some Business Internet Banking financial institutions.

Criminals are soliciting customers by e-mail in an effort to illegally obtain personal information. The e-mail address and the website address may appear almost identical to those of legitimate financial institutions. The e-mail may provide a general message and will provide a link to a site that may look authentic. The customer is asked to input personal information such as a Company ID, User ID and Password. These e-mails attempt to trick customers into supplying sensitive personal data. This fraudulent practice is often called "phishing" or "spoofing".

When logging into Business Express, you should use the links from our home page to access the site. If you have questions about this information or e-mails that you may receive, please contact us at 1-800-733-9970.

ONLINE BANKING SECURITY

Washington Federal's Online Banking provides a combination of industry approved security technologies to protect data for the Bank and for you, our customer. It features Strong Authentication, password-controlled system entry, a VeriSign issued Digitial ID for the Bank's server, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology for data encryption, and firewalls to regulate the inflow and outflow of server traffic. These security features are designed to further protect you and your online accounts.

Secure Sign On

Secure Sign On provides an additional layer of security that will change the way you login to our Online Banking service. These changes will provide even greater levels of protection against fraudulent attacks such as phishing, spoofing, key logging and identity theft. All users will be required to select challenge questions and answers, select a unique image and create a personal description for the image that is only known by you. Each time you login thereafter, the image will appear to verify that you are on Washington Federal's Online Banking site before entering your password.

The final level of the new security is the authentication of your computer. This is optional to you as a customer. By agreeing to automatically register the computer you use for Online Banking, you help to streamline your signon process, while also making it more secure. If our system detects a suspicious login due to an unfamiliar computer, it will automatically present the challenge questions that you selected.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

A protocol for transferring data, SSL is encryption that creates a secure environment for the information being transferred between your browser and the Bank's network.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protects data in three key ways:

1. Authentication - ensures that you are communicating with the correct server. This prevents another computer from impersonating the Bank.

2. Encryption - scrambles the transferred data.

3. Data Integrity - verifies that the information sent by you to the Bank has not been altered during the transfer. The system detects if data was added or deleted after you sent the message. If any tampering has occurred, the connection is dropped.

128-bit Encryption

There are essentially two types of encryption: High and Standard. The difference between these types of encryption is the strength of capability. High, or 128-bit encryption is exponentially more powerful than a Standard, 56-bit enryption. High, 128-bit encryption means there are a multitude of possible keys that could fit into the lock that holds your account information, but only one key that works for each time you bank online. Washington Federal uses the highest level of encryption to ensure your online transmissions are secure.

VeriSign Global Certificate

A VeriSign Global Certificate is a specialized SSL certificate that raises the minimum security level for all users to 128-bit encryption, even for those browsers that do not have the 128-bit feature turned on. This technology was developed to enable customers to temporarily interact with websites that demand a minimum encryption level of 128-bit. Therefore, our VeriSign Global Certificate will automatically raise your security level for the duration of your online banking session, thereby providing added assurance that your information is protected.

Account Number Masking

In order to further ensure the security of your accounts and protect you from fraud, we now hide or "mask" a portion of your account number. This provides additional security on your account(s) should your username and password ever become compromised. While this keeps your account number safe, you are still able to differentiate one account from another by viewing the last four digits which are not masked. As an alternative, you can customize your accounts by adding a "nickname" to each account.

With these enhanced security features, you can enjoy the added safety and convenience of Online Banking, knowing that you have extra protection from online fraud.

If you have questions about Online Banking Security, you can email us at info@washfed.com or call (724) 222-3120.