Security Statement

Ensuring you have a secure online banking experience is our number one priority. This level of security is achieved by:

• Protecting the privacy and the confidentiality of the communications between your browser and our servers.

• Verifying that only authorized persons are allowed to access online banking.

• Maintaining isolation of our computers from the Internet.

Privacy

The privacy of the communications between you (your browser) and our servers is ensured using cryptography. Cryptography scrambles messages exchanged between your browser and our online banking server. Encryption happens as follows: When you go to the sign-on page for online banking, your browser establishes a secure session with our server. The secure session is established using a protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Encryption. This protocol requires the exchange of what are called public and private keys. Keys are random numbers chosen for that session and are only known between your browser and our server. After the keys are exchanged, your browser will use the numbers to scramble (encrypt) the messages sent between your browser and our server. Both sides require the keys because they need to de-scramble (decrypt) the messages when they are received. The SSL protocol, not only ensures privacy, but also ensures that no other browser can "impersonate" your browser, nor alter any of the information sent. You can tell whether your browser is in secure mode by looking for the secured lock symbol at the bottom of your browser window.

The numbers used as encryption keys are analogous to combination locks. The strength of encryption is based on the number of possible combinations that a lock can have.

As the number of possible combinations grows, it becomes less likely that anyone would be able to guess the combination in order to decrypt the message. Today's browsers offer 40-bit encryption or 128-bit encryption. Both result in a large number of possible combinations, 240 and 2128, respectively. Our servers require 128-bit capable browsers.

Authorization
It is also important to verify that only authorized persons log into online banking. This is achieved by verifying your password. When you submit your password, it is compared with the password we have stored in our secure data center. We allow you to enter your password incorrectly five (5) times. If you enter your password incorrectly five times, your online banking account will be locked until you call us to reinitialize the account. We monitor and record "bad-login" attempts to detect any suspicious activity (i.e., someone trying to guess your password). You play a crucial role in preventing others from logging on to your account. Never use passwords that are easy to guess. Examples of bad passwords are: birth dates, first names, pet names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, etc. Never reveal your password to another person. You should periodically change your password in the User Option screen of online banking.

Network Security
We provide a number of additional security features in online banking. Online banking will "timeout" after a specified period of inactivity. This prevents curious persons from continuing your online banking session in case you have left your computer unattended without logging out. You may set the timeout period in the User Options screen of online banking. However, we recommend that you always sign-off (log out) when you are done with your online banking. The network architecture used to provide the online banking service was designed by the brightest minds in network technology. While the architecture is too complex to explain here, it is important to point out that the computers that store your actual account information are not hooked up to the Internet. The requests you make through the Internet are handled by our online banking servers, which retrieve the information you requested from our mainframe via proxy-based firewall servers, these servers act as the interface between you and our mainframe computers.