Bank of America, the largest US retail bank, seems to be in a pinch these days. It received a subpoenas and requests for information related to auction-rate securities from both the federal and state government agencies.

The mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial Corp which Bank of America bought last month has also been sent subpoenas from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and has responded and is now facing formal investigation by the SEC.

At the end of the day, Bank of America shares closed down 5.8%, at US$31.52 on the New York Stock Exchange. As of this year, they have fallen 24%.

Fraud losses to online banking fraud are now down to at least one third.

In 2007, losses caused by fraud summed up to £22.6 million, down from £33.5 million back in 2006. These develeopments have resulted from the security measures that was put into place, said the Association for Payment and Clearing Services (APACS).

In spite of this, phishing and other methods of attacks have been on the rise this year as there have been more than 20,000 recorded phishing attacks during the first half of 2008, almost double the figure from the previous year.

Cyber-criminals are now shifting to phishing and other forms of social engineering to trick users in providing the information that they need. Another common method is through the use of spyware. These methods attack the users, since banks are more difficult to attack.

An online banking-related trojan has been detected by an Antivirus vendor going around the Internet.

The offending malware was detected by Panda Security, an antivirus vendor. It spreads via email and contains a message indicating an accident involving a Formula One driver Fernando Alonso. The message contains a link that claims to show the footage of the accident.

Once the link is clicked, the trojan is downloaded into the user’s computer. The trojan however, only targets a specific Spanish bank. Experts urge users to use and update their antivirus software. Also, don’t open messages from unknown senders.

A recent study released by the University of Michigan says that the majority of online banking websites are insecure, making it vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves.

The study shows that as much as 75 percent of the 214 online banking websites had a design flaw that put users of those websites at risk. These design flaws are built into the system, where simple patches and updates do not really fix the problem. Users of such websites are also exposed to security threats.

Examples of design flaws that the study found are the following: 1) The user has a secure log-in box placed in an insecure web page, the availability of contact information in an unsecured page, and the lack of a warning when a user is redirected outside the domain of the online banking site.

Such flaws run the risk of XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks and phishing attacks since such flaws are the ones often used by hackers and other cyber-criminals.

A recent study reveals that Australians are wary of using mobile phones to do banking transactions.

The survey shows that 78 percent Australians will not shop, pay items, or bank using their mobile phones because they say such transactions are not secure.

Unisys, a security service consultant says that the likely reason behind such fears is that there is not much awareness of its security. They are aware of the benefits, yet are not sure if the service is really secure.

Mobile banking is a convenient service that is gaining popularity around the world since it allows people to do simple banking transactions using their mobile phones anywhere they are.

A recent study shows that Canada is one of the most developed countries in terms of providing online banking services. Along with that, data shows that majority of Canadians visit online banking websites when on the Internet.

According to the study, 61.7 Canadians have visited online banking sites in April 2008, where countries like UK and the US only have 44.4 and 41.7 percent of users of online banking during that same period, respectively.

There is a total of 24 million Internet users in Canada, where 15.5 million visited a banking website, which is two percent up from the same period of the previous year.

The study was conducted by comScore, a web metrics company.

Barclays, one of the largest banks with online banking access will be offering security software to their online banking customers free of charge.

The software from Kaspersky usually sells for 50 Euros will be available for download at the bank’s website to their two million customers. The software is set to protect users from online threats such as viruses, phishing attacks, and other forms of malware.

The free software offer is part of the bank’s effort to secure their online banking users from the ever growing fraudulent threats. Along with the software plus a complex authentication system, Barclays is confident that their users will be more secure.

A technical problem in the Bank of Ireland’s online banking service left users unable to access the online service last week.

The glitch caused users who were on the Mac operating system using the Safari browser to be unable to log into the website. A spokesperson from the bank did confirm the issue and says it was caused by some changes that have been implemented lately.

According to the bank official, the number of customers who use such software is only very little, roughly 2 percent of their total registered users. The Bank of Ireland has 720,000 users of its online service and about 14,400 were affected by the problem.

As of now, Safari users can access the bank’s temporary facility to enable access to their online accounts. A permanent solution to the problem is said to be made as soon as possible.

Scammers are now targeting social networks to obtain more personal information to use against users. This move leaves people who use such services open to phishing attacks and other scams.

As social networks are gaining popularity, scammers are moving to these online services to obtain more information to convince and gain the trust of users, making their scams more believable. Even the most basic information available on these networks can be used by scammers to personalize their scam attempts in order to persuade their prospective victims to provide more personal information.

Some scammers may even persuade users to click on a link that leads to a custom site that automatically downloads malware like spyware and keyloggers, leaving them exposed to identity theft.

As a precaution, users of thes social networks should refrain from adding people to their networks if they do not know or trust the person. It is also recommended that users keep their profile pages private so that other people will not be able to view information unless they are part of the user’s social network.

A recent survey reveals that more Internet users spend most of their time on online banking websites rather than staying on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook.

The research made by Abbey shows that three billion hours are spent on online banking in a year. The study also shows that 82 percent of people who use online banking services claim it makes them better in managing their finances.

The beauty of online banking is users do not need to fall in line and wait in a queue. With just a computer and an Internet connection, they can easily bank effortlessly any time and any day they want. With much ease and convenience in handling finances, more people are now starting to save money through the Internet and online banking.