Points to remember when log­ging in

When log­ging into your e-banking facility, you have to enter sen­si­tive and pri­vate details (for instance your pass­word). This is how to do so in a secure manner.

Securely nav­i­gate to your finan­cial insti­tu­tion website

To avoid falling victim to a phishing attempt, you should make sure that you are actu­ally con­nected to your finan­cial insti­tu­tion before log­ging into your e-banking facility.

To do so, always enter the address for your finan­cial institution’s e-banking page man­u­ally via the browser address line. Never use any links you were sent, e. g. via e-mail or SMS, and no search engines such as Google, Bing or sim­ilar either!

We also rec­om­mend to only ever use your e-banking facility on a familiar and secure device (“5 steps for your dig­ital secu­rity”)  (i.e. don’t use any public devices in a hotel, etc.).

Check that the con­nec­tion is secure

Since you have to enter sen­si­tive and pri­vate details (for instance your pass­word) to log in, you have to use a pro­tected con­nec­tion to your finan­cial institution.

An SSL con­nec­tion which has been cor­rectly estab­lished with the proper web­site and which is based on an authentic and valid cer­tifi­cate - i.e. a secure con­nec­tion - can be recog­nised by the fol­lowing three clear browser characteristics:

1. A lock symbol in the address line
   This con­nec­tion was encrypted using a valid SSL certificate.
2. The cor­rect finan­cial institution’s name (this is either dis­played next to the lock or after clicking the lock, under “Issued for”) 
   The iden­tify of the cer­tifi­cate owner (the bank) has been confirmed.
3. Cor­rect domain name in the address line
   You are actu­ally on the finan­cial institution’s website.

 

You can read up here how to check the certificate.

Note: Some finan­cial insti­tu­tions offer a spe­cific pro­gram (soft­ware, e. g. a hard­ened browser) for accessing their e-banking facility. This allows for some addi­tional secu­rity checks (e. g. cer­tifi­cate checks) to be run. Depending on the soft­ware used, the above two actions “Securely nav­i­gate to your finan­cial insti­tu­tion web­site” and “Check that the con­nec­tion is secure” are then irrel­e­vant, or you may not even be able to per­form them.

Cau­tion in case of system dis­rup­tions or unusual errors messages

If there is a system inter­rup­tion while log­ging into your e-banking facility (for instance a white screen sud­denly appears), or if there are any unusual error mes­sages, (for instance “The system is cur­rently over­loaded. Please be patient and try again a bit later”), you should imme­di­ately ter­mi­nate the con­nec­tion and notify the support/help desk of your finan­cial insti­tu­tion.

A detailed descrip­tion of respec­tive log-in pro­ce­dures for your e-banking facility can also be found here: