'.bank.nz ' Making Fresh Attempts to Create a Place

The Banker's Association is going to establish another ".bank.nz" second-level Internet domain to reduce the phishing scams haunting the banking sector. After being rejected twice by the Internet community, the domain is making fresh attempts to make its place in cyberspace, particularly in New Zealand banking sector, a step, that it says, could make online banking safer.

The Association first put forth the proposal of setting a second-level domain back in 2002, but it failed to get enough votes from the Internet community, as represented by InternetNZ. If the proposal had been accepted, banks could alter their web Ids from, say, anz.co.nz to anz.bank.nz.

The domain "bank.nz" was the first second-level domain that was proposed after the Internet registry of New Zealand was set in '90s. The Bankers' Association attempted again in 2001 but both times, it failed to get 70% votes (the threshold required for an application to move forward) in a straw poll of organizations and people who own ".nz" Ids.

Earlier phishing scams in New Zealand generally relied on bogus names, like "bankdlrect.co.nz". Alan Yates, Chief Executive, Bankers' Association, on March 7, 2007, said in news reported by computerworld.co.nz that if all the authentic bank domains were in the form of "name.bank.nz" and the domain was "moderated", then only authentic banks could use this domain, reducing the phishing risk greatly, although not abolished completely.

The rules of the New Zealand Bankers' Association were modified in 2003. Now the association can avoid public vote and can straightly go to ".nz" supervision committee that would check the public submissions on application.

The New Zealand Bankers' Association helps the Fraud Awareness Campaign and requests the customers of banks to strictly follow the advice given regularly by their banks to save their bank account, PIN and password details. If clients are banking online, then they must ensure to keep their anti-spyware, firewall, and anti-virus updated for safe banking. Also, customers should keep the golden rule in mind: banks and officials in authority, like Police, will never ask you to give them your PIN or password details.

stuff.co.nz reported on March 5, 2007 that phishing attacks in New Zealand seem to be rising, even though the cases of effective online swindles seems to be declining.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 3/21/2007

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