INTERNET BANKING SECURITY
Farmers Trust is committed to ensuring a secure Online Express internet banking experience for you. Farmers Trust makes Online Express secure by:
- Protecting the privacy and the confidentiality of the communications between your browser and our servers.
- Maintaining network security by isolating our computers from the Internet.
- Verifying that only authorized persons are allowed to access online banking.
Privacy
The privacy of the communications between you (your browser) and our servers is ensured using encryption. Encryption scrambles messages exchanged between your browser and our online banking server. Encryption happens as follows:
- When you log in to Online Express, your browser establishes a secure session with our E-commerce server. The secure session is established using a protocol called Transport Layer Security (TLS) Encryption. This protocol requires the exchange of what are called public and private keys. Keys are random numbers chosen for that session and are only known between your browser and our server.
- After the keys are exchanged, your browser will use the numbers to scramble (encrypt) the messages sent between your browser and our server. Both sides require the keys because they need to de-scramble (decrypt) the messages when they are received.
The TLS protocol not only ensures privacy but also ensures no other browser can "impersonate" your browser, nor alter any of the information sent. You can tell whether your browser is in secure mode by looking for https:// in the address bar and for the secured lock symbol in your browser.
The numbers used as encryption keys are analogous to combination locks. The strength of encryption is based on the number of possible combinations that a lock can have. As the number of possible combinations grows, it becomes less likely that anyone would be able to guess the combination in order to decrypt the message. We require the use of 256-bit capable browsers.
In addition, Online Express utilizes Extended Validation (EV) certificates to provide you a way to visually verify the security of our Online Express Internet Banking website before entering your password or providing answers to a Security Challenge Question. EV certificates cause the secure browser's address bar to turn GREEN when you access our EV secured site. It will also identify the legitimate owner of the website (our processing partner, Fiserv).
Network Security
We provide a number of additional security features in Online Express internet banking.
Online Express will "timeout" after a specified period of inactivity. This prevents curious persons from continuing your Online Express session in case you have left your computer or mobile device unattended without logging out. However, we recommend you always sign-off (log out) when you are done with your online banking.
The network architecture used to provide the online banking service was designed by the brightest minds in network technology. While the architecture is too complex to explain here, it is important to point out the computers that store your actual account information are not hooked up to the Internet. The requests you make through the Internet are handled by our E-commerce server, which retrieves the information you requested from our internal servers via a firewall.
Our firewall is maintained and monitored around the clock by a security team specializing in Internet Security for financial institutions. The firewall utilizes current firewall software, intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systems.
Authorization
It is also important to verify that only authorized persons log in to Online Express. This is achieved through use of your Username, Password and our Enhanced Online Security.
We allow you to enter your password incorrectly three (3) times. If you enter your password incorrectly three times, you will not be able to access Online Express products and services until you contact us to reinitialize the account. We monitor and record "bad-login" attempts to detect any suspicious activity (i.e., someone trying to guess your password).
