online banking

More than 75 percent of the bank Web sites surveyed in a University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, study had at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cyberthieves after their money or even their identity. The study -- Analyzing Web sites For User-Visible security Design Flaws -- conducted by the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, examined the Web sites of 214 financial institutions in 2006.

It took computer safety expert Linda Criddle only nine minutes to snag the phone number of a teenage girl in Nebraska who had posted just a little information about herself on a social networking Web site.

Criddle is a former Microsoft employee who specialized in online safety and is the author of a consumer-safety book, "Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet."

She spoke at the Economic Crime Conference sponsored by the Utah Attorney General's Office on Thursday -- with a message that would send shivers down any parent's spine.

Twice a year or so my wife will breathlessly tell me: "The Internet is down."

My first reaction is that I am sitting on one heck of a news story. Civilization as we know it would slow to a crawl if the Internet itself stopped working. But I know what she really means: Our DSL connection isn't working.

More than 75 percent of bank Web sites have at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cybercriminals after their money or even their identity, a University of Michigan study says.

Atul Prakash, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said some banks may have taken steps to resolve these problems since the data was gathered, but overall he still sees a need for improvement.

Mac users looking for off-site backup can get it from EMC, which announced Thursday that its MozyHome for Mac is now available. EMC described it as "the industry's first unlimited online backup service" for Macs.

EMC said other versions of Mozy, including enterprise PCs, have about 700,000 users worldwide and about 6.2 billion files backed up.

Two Gigs Free

Banks have been disappointing customers in many ways lately -- tightening mortgage lending standards, paring back home-equity and credit-card lines and lowering savings interest rates -- but they're receiving higher marks for at least one thing: their Web sites.