Arstechnica: Study: websites of financial institutions insecure by design

<URL:  
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080723-study-websites-of-financial-institutions-insecure-by-design.html  
>

Hmmmm?

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For example, nearly 30 percent of the sites the researchers examined  
performed what they termed a "break in the chain of trust." In this case,  
specific financial activities required that the user be sent to a site run  
by a different company, meaning they were no longer interacting with the  
original domain; in many cases, a different security certificate was  
required. In 17 percent of these cases, there was no warning that this  
would occur.

Roughly half the sites requested login information on an insecure page.  
The information was typically sent using JavaScript that invoked a secure  
SSL connection, but the user had no indication of this, a practice that  
promotes a casual approach to security. Over a quarter of the sites had  
poor policies on the username/password combination. Some accepted short,  
insecure passwords. Others either accepted or defaulted to easily obtained  
usernames, such as e-mail addresses or Social Security numbers.
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-- 
Sincerely,
Yngve N. Pettersen
 
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Received on Wednesday, 23 July 2008 21:59:56 UTC