The 2005 Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's guidance, "Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment" ushered in a new era of online banking security protections and with it a wave of technology upgrades as banks and their vendors scrambled to meet compliance. 

New 2011 FFIEC guidance recognizes that cybercriminals, Trojans and botnets have radically evolved in recent years. Many online bank accounts are still only protected by little more than a cookie and a simple hash of browser and IP attributes, technologies that are becoming obsolete. 

While customer device identification remains the most cost effective first perimeter of defense for customer and transaction authentication, banks need stronger device identification to meet new FFIEC guidance and defeat today's sophisticated attacks while still safeguarding customer privacy, trust and convenience.

Read this ThreatMetrix whitepaper to learn:

• The key limitations of simple identification methods

• What smart identification entails

• Why upgrades to current customer device identification are critical

• How to initiate transaction authentication and monitoring