Your computer should have at least 8 MB of RAM to run the software that links you to the bank, and 20 MB or more of free space on your hard drive so you can download account balances and other information. For online banking, you will also need a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator for Windows. Your bank will also want to know which program you re using whether it is Windows or Macintosh. Next, you will need a PIN number that will give you access to the bank s web site. When transacting online your information should be encrypted.
Encryption is the process of converting information into a more secure format for transmission.
The plain text is converted to scrambled code. For the encryption to work properly, both the sender and receiver have to know what rule, or cipher, was used to transform the original information into its coded form. A simple cipher might be to shift all characters in a message by an arbitrary number of characters, say 5. As long as the receiver knows that s what the sender did to the message, the receiver will subtract 5 characters from the message received to extract the original text. Most commonly available browsers use 40-bit encryption.