At United Teletech, we understand that security and privacy when dealing with a financial institution is paramount. This is especially important when banking over the Internet, where fraud and computerized theft are a major concern. With this in mind, we would like to provide you with information concerning our online security. We hope that you feel safe and secure with us as your financial service provider.

Encryption

When using home banking, information about your transactions must travel between your browser and the server. These transmissions, if not properly protected, are vulnerable to unauthorized access. However, these transmissions are encrypted with something called the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol; in other words, they are scrambled using a specific number known only by your browser and the server. This number is different every time you log on to home banking, and is chosen at random by the server. The server scrambles the information that is sent to your computer, and your browser uses the random number (called a key) to de-scramble the message. Transmissions going from your browser to the server are encrypted the same way. Because of this, it is nearly impossible for anyone else to monitor your activities while using home banking.

The size of the numbers that are used to encrypt the messages determines how strong the protection is. For example, think of the SSL protocol as a combination lock, and the numbers as the combination to that lock. The larger that number is, the less likely it is that someone can guess it. Today's browsers support both 40-bit and 128-bit encryption. 40-bit encryption allows for 240 different combinations, while 128-bit allows for 2128 different combinations. To give you an idea of how secure that kind of encryption is: A bit can have two values, on and off (1 and 0, respectively). So imagine 128 light bulbs that can be either on or off. Each combination of lights that are on or off is a possibility. That gives 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different possibilities! Out of all of those numbers, only one is chosen at random by the server to encrypt your messages, and that number changes each time you log on. This encryption is so powerful that the United States government has made laws forbidding the exportation of this technology to other countries.

If you have an older browser version, we recommend that you update so that they can support 128-bit encryption. Not only will your online transactions be more secure, but also you will be able to enjoy a host of other features of the newer browsers. Also, if your browsers are updated, make sure that they have the correct settings to enable 128-bit encryption.

To test your encryption, you can do one of the following:

• Netscape Navigator: Go to a secure page then click on View in the main menu, then on Page Info. The level of encryption should be shown under Security.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: Go to Help then About Internet Explorer. Some information will appear, including Cipher Strength, which tells the level of encryption.

Authorization and Passwords

With online security, the most important issue is making sure that a person who is accessing their online account really is who they say they are. In order to do this, your online account is protected by a password. When you first sign up for Home Banking, your password is set to the last four digits of your social security number. We strongly recommend you log on to your account and change your password immediately. A large responsibility for online security rests with the user. Do not assume that your account is safe and that you don't need to change your password, because if someone can easily guess your password, then much of the security of your account is lost.

In changing your password, try to avoid using things that a person could easily guess. Some examples of bad passwords are:

• Birth dates
• First names
• Pet names
• Addresses
• Phone numbers
• Social security numbers

All of these pieces of information are easily attainable, and are usually the first attempts to guess your password. In addition, we strongly recommend changing your password every few weeks. This will decrease the likelihood that a person will be able to guess your password.

To further secure your account, there is an automatic lockout if an incorrect password is entered 3 times. If there are 3 incorrect login attempts in a row on any one online account, that account is locked. You will then need to call the credit union and request for your password to be reset. On a final note, bad login attempts are monitored and recorded by us to detect any suspicious activity. This will be explained later in the Monitoring and Tracking section.

Network Security

As another security measure, each online banking session is timed. After a certain length of inactivity, you are automatically logged out of your account. This way, if you get up and leave your PC, forgetting to log out, no one will be able to make changes to your account from that computer. You may set the expiration time in the User Options screen of home banking. While this is an added security feature, we strongly recommend that you log out of your online banking account before getting up from your computer. There have been instances where only a few minutes away from the computer lead to compromised security. Finally, the network itself is constructed with security as the top priority. While the specifics are too technical and complex to go into here, it is important to know that the servers that store your personal information are not hooked up to the Internet. They are on a dedicated line to our home banking servers, which is in turn protected by a proxy-based firewall. These servers act as a go-between for your browser and the mainframe (which holds account information). Your browser's requests are received by our servers, which then retrieve the information from the mainframe and present it to you. In this way, it is impossible for someone to break into the mainframe computers directly.

Monitoring and Tracking

There are many concerns today about being able to track a person's online movements and determine where they go, what they do, etc. United Teletech monitors activity on its website for data collection purposes only. We monitor activity on our website so that we can determine where people are going in our website, how long they stay on a particular page, etc. However, we do not track individual computers, nor do we maintain a cache of IP addresses. We believe that such activities are an invasion of privacy and highly unethical. While we do monitor what is happening on our website so that we can create pages that cater to our members' needs, the information that is collected is of a generic nature only, is not tied to any computer, and in no way is used against the members of the credit union.

It is important to know that while we do not track individual computers on our website, we do monitor individual activities on our home banking service. This is because transactions made in home banking are financial transactions, and as such, must be recorded. In addition, we monitor and record bad login attempts to online accounts. This is to detect malicious activity; if an incorrect password is given for an account three times in a row, it is safe to assume that the person does not know the password and is trying to gain unauthorized access. Therefore, when an incorrect login is detected three times in a row, that online account is locked. You must then call the credit union to have your password reset. Again, it is important to note that these records are not used against our members, nor given to outside parties except as is indicated in our Member Privacy Policy.

We hope that you feel safe and secure with us as your financial institution. As stated above, your security and peace of mind is our top priority. If, after reading this policy, you still have additional questions, please feel free to contact the credit union.

Postal Mail:

United Teletech Financial
205 Hance Avenue
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724

Phone:

(732) 530-8100

E-mail:

info@utcu.org