Bank of the West Selects RSA for Strengthened Online Consumer Protection

SAN FRANCISCO, and BEDFORD, Mass., July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- RSA, The Security Division of EMC , announced today that Bank of the West, the second largest bank based in California, has implemented the RSA(R) Adaptive Authentication for Web solution and joined the RSA eFraudNetwork(SM) community to help further protect bank customers, their funds and personal information when banking online.

Bank of the West has deployed behind-the-scenes protection for its online banking application, eTimeBanker, using RSA's risk-based authentication technology as well as the company's visible site-to-user authentication feature. The combination is designed to provide strong security that involves bank customers in a user-friendly way, reassures them and boosts their confidence online, while not hindering their banking experience.

"Providing online customer security is important, while also providing a simple and user-friendly online experience," said Donald Duggan, Chief Information Officer at Bank of the West. "We found that the RSA Adaptive Authentication solution included all of the features we required to fit both the bank's and our customers' needs, provided by an experienced leader in the market."

"Consumers will do more banking on the Internet if they feel secure and can still enjoy the advantages of the online channel," said Christopher Young, Vice President, Consumer Solutions Group and Access Solutions Group at RSA. "We aim to help Bank of the West accelerate its business by increasing remote channel activity through stronger security and enhanced consumer confidence."

RSA Adaptive Authentication for Web is engineered to analyze all online banking activities in real-time and calculate a risk-score for each. Using the risk score, the solution is designed to automatically invoke additional strong authentication methods in a transparent manner, such as secret questions or an automated 'out-of-band' phone call, for high-risk activities or for users that could not be authenticated easily. The transparent authentication relies on identifying the user's device and considering it in the context of additional risk factors such as the user's location or details of the specific activity. With RSA's site-to-user authentication, users select a unique image and phrase. The image is then displayed at login to verify the official bank Web site before a password is entered.

Bank of the West has also become a member of the RSA eFraudNetwork community, the world's most effective collaborative online anti-fraud network. With more than 50 large financial institutions and a multitude of smaller ones on the network, Bank of the West can benefit from immediate protection based on real-time online fraud data from financial institutions around the world.

About Bank of the West

Founded in 1874, $56 billion-asset Bank of the West ( http://www.bankofthewest.com/ ) offers a full range of business, corporate, personal, trust and international banking services and currently operates more than 700 branch locations and commercial banking offices in 19 Western and Midwestern states.

About RSA

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, is the premier provider of security solutions for business acceleration, helping the world's leading organizations succeed by solving their most complex and sensitive security challenges. RSA's information-centric approach to security guards the integrity and confidentiality of information throughout its lifecycle -- no matter where it moves, who accesses it or how it is used.

RSA offers industry-leading solutions in identity assurance & access control, encryption & key management, compliance & security information management and fraud protection. These solutions bring trust to millions of user identities, the transactions that they perform, and the data that is generated. For more information, please visit http://www.rsa.com/ and http://www.emc.com/ .

RSA and eFraudNetwork are either registered trademarks or trademarks of RSA Security Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation. All other products or services mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Matt Buckley RSA, The Security Division of EMC (781) 515-6212 mbuckley@rsa.com Larry Smalheiser OutCast Communications (415) 392-8282 rsa@outcastpr.com John Stafford Bank of the West (415) 765-4850 john.stafford@bankofthewest.com