UK Banks mull making customers liable for Identity Theft

[mandy]

IT security TechNet Security Center: Tools & Guidance to Defend Your Network experts have warned that UK online banking customers could soon be liable for any money lost through identity theft, if they do not take reasonable steps to ensure their PCs are secure.

At a roundtable event, Mark Murtagh, technical services director of Web security vendor WebSense, argued that banks need to keep consumers confident of the safety of their online services, but if the costs of online fraud become too great they may "put responsibility on the end-user." ...

"If [financial] organizations get too strict on the security side there'll be a pushback on the consumer side," predicted Les Fraser, security adviser for the British Computer Society. Responsibility for the safety of the Internet as a platform for e-commerce and access to services should also lie with the government, Fraser argued...

full article: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/LW3h...raud.xhtml

[regic]

banks could suffer a customer backlash if they take such steps.