Privacy & Security

Convenient, Safe, and Secure!

One of our most important responsibilities is protecting our members' information. You may ask yourself how we do this. We have structured our network architecture so that the servers which store your actual account information are NOT connected to the Internet. The requests you make through the Internet are handled by our Internet servers. Additionally, we use several layers of security to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to our network.

Recommended Browsers
Our website and Online Banking has been optimized for viewing within certified browsers.  Browsers that are certified have passed our security testing.  By using an unsupported browser, you may not be able to view the take full advantage of all the features within Internet Banking and our website. See below for a list of recommended browsers.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (includes AOL 8.0 & 9.0)
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0
• Safari 3.0

Firewalls

Information first passes through a filtering router and is then passed through the firewall. The firewall verifies the source and destination of each information packet, changes the address of the packet and then delivers it to the appropriate area. This way, all inside addresses are protected from outside access and internal addresses are invisible to observers.

Encryption
We use software that incorporates full RSA data encryption to ensure security and privacy of transactions. We require the use of a secure browser to access your account online. Your browser must be equipped with SSL (Secure Socket Layer) with 128-bit encryption to communicate with our servers.

Privacy
Protecting the confidentiality of your information en route over the Internet is of the utmost importance to your Credit Union. Anyone surfing our Web site will be in a secure environment. The use of a secure browser provides Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol protection. SSL utilizes public key cryptography.

Public Key Cryptography
Public key cryptography is a technique that uses a pair of keys, one public (or distributed) and one private (or confidential) for encryption and decryption. Whenever you access the Web site, the session is protected by public key cryptography.

Username & Password
The safety of your Online Banking session begins with you. Your password is critical to the security of your Online Banking session, so never share your username or password with anyone. For added security, if a password is entered incorrectly five times, we automatically lock the Online Banking account. Your username is your Power Financial Credit Union member number. Your password is created by you and is at least eight characters in length. For your password, it is best to select a random combination of letters and numbers and to not choose something obvious or identifiable like your mother's maiden name, the name of your children, the name of your pet, your house number, or your birthday. We also recommend that you do not Auto Save your password in your browser. Power Financial Credit Union employees do not have access to your password. Should your account become locked out, and you have not set up the Forgotten Password feature, you will need to contact the Credit Union. We recommend that you always sign off (log out) when done banking online.

Timeout Feature
For additional security, Power Financial Credit Union uses a Timeout Feature within SecureLink Online Banking. This setting will automatically log you out after a pre-set period of inactivity. You can select your own Timeout length. Lower numbers offer more security while higher numbers offer more convenience. Once logged in to Online Banking, this feature can be accessed by clicking the User Options button and choosing Change Timeout. Then, just select a new timeout period and click "Change Timeout" to update your new selection.

Enhanced Login Security

Enhanced Login Security identifies you as the true "owner" of your accounts through the use of a "cookie" placed on your computer that identifies each particular user and computer. This feature strengthens the security measures we already employ.  You will need to enable your cookies.  If you delete the Enhanced Login Security cookie, you will be prompted to answer the challenge questions at your next login.  If you are using a public computer you may choose not to place a cookie on that computer.  If you do place a cookie there, it would remain there until it expires or is otherwise deleted (many public computers automatically delete all cookies at the end of the day). Instead of adding extra security to that computer (and placing a cookie on that machine), you would enter your Member Number, Password and then answer the two challenge questions to gain access to your account online.