MEDIA RELEASE
Barclays Bank Protects Online Banking Users with Behind-the-Scenes Authentication using RSA Transaction Monitoring
The live system, which transparently authenticates users, has proven to be very effective
in detecting fraud with minimal impact on the online banking user experience
Sydney, Australia, March 23, 2006 - RSA Security (Nasdaq: RSAS) today announced that Barclays Bank plc, one of the
largest retail banks in Europe, has launched the RSA Transaction Monitoring solution to further protect its online
banking users. The solution authenticates users behind-the-scenes and detects online fraud while placing no burden on
consumers. Earlier this quarter, RSAR Transaction Monitoring was implemented and integrated for Barclays, and has been
in production ever since.
"With Internet fraud across the industry and consumer awareness about identity theft and security on the rise, we needed
a solution that would help monitor and control the potential threats faced by our online customers - but without
hassling them or impacting the growing adoption of our online services," said Ian Morgan, Head of Channel Development,
Electronic Banking from Barclays. "RSA Security's solution strikes the perfect balance and allows us to do just that.
The system was up and running in full production following a simple and seamless implementation project, and the results
have been extremely positive so far in terms of behind the scenes user authentication, fraud detection and an
exceptionally low false-positive rate."
"Banks implementing strong authentication and fraud management systems for online banking must consider the level of
security as well as the impact on usability - Barclays sets a great example with its approach," said Chris Young, senior
vice president and general manager of RSA Consumer Solutions. "When dealing with mass consumer authentication, it is
critical to detect and reduce fraud, but also to maintain a low rate of false-positives, so as not to cause a dramatic
surge in customer service calls and irritated customers. We achieve our great results by taking a multitude of sources,
sensors and cross-industry intelligence into consideration when scoring each and every transaction, and ensuring users
can continue to use a range of devices to access their accounts without a problem."
RSA Transaction Monitoring provides strong, reliable protection against online fraud by analysing and scoring all online
banking transactions in real-time. The bank can then decide how to handle high-risk transactions, including blocking the
transaction or conducting a manual review and seeking further identification of the user. The system, which provides a
second factor of transparent authentication using IP address, user and device profiles, incurs no change in the user
experience. Additionally, the Company's risk-based, one-time password and EMV authentication solutions can be deployed -
via RSA Adaptive Authentication - on top of Transaction Monitoring to provide the additional transaction validation,
should it be required.
The RSA risk engine compares each online transaction to an automatically-generated profile of that user's known
behaviour and other criteria, such as digital fingerprints, geographic location, device information and more. The
solution also compares the data to known fraud patterns compiled by the RSA eFraudNetworkT community, the world's most
effective online financial fraud network. With membership comprising thousands of financial institutions worldwide,
including the United Kingdom's largest banks, the eFraudNetwork collates some of the best, most up-to-date intelligence
from across the globe, giving banks instantaneous information and immediate protection.
About Barclays Bank Plc
Barclays PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards,
investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. We are one of the largest financial services
companies in the world by market capitalisation. Operating in over 60 countries and employing over 113,000 people, we
move, lend, invest and protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history
and expertise in banking, Barclays PLC has six major businesses.
UK Banking delivers banking products and services to over 14 million retail customers and 775,000 businesses in the UK.
Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe, and has 17 million cards in issue.
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division, provides corporate, institutional and government clients with
solutions to their financing and risk management needs.
Barclays Global Investors is one of the world's largest asset managers and a leading provider of investment management
products and services.
Wealth Management has over 580,000 affluent and high net worth clients.
International Retail and Commercial Banking is our global retail and commercial banking operation, with over 2 million
international clients, in geographies which currently include the Caribbean, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Africa and
the Middle East.
About RSA Consumer Solutions
RSA Consumer Solutions, a division of RSA Security Inc., offers proven solutions for online banking and e-commerce that
range from adaptive authentication - with risk-based technology, one-time-passwords and transaction-signing - to
anti-phishing services and real-time transaction monitoring that controls fraud and manages risk. The company's
eFraudNetworkT community is the world's most effective cross-bank collaborative online fraud network. Today, many of the
world's top 50 banks, including nine of the top 12 banks in North America and the UK, use RSA solutions to protect
approximately 430 million consumers.
About RSA Security Inc.
RSA Security Inc. is the expert in protecting online identities and digital assets. The inventor of core security
technologies for the Internet, the Company leads the way in strong authentication and encryption, bringing trust to
millions of user identities and the transactions that they perform. RSA Security's portfolio of award-winning identity & access management solutions helps businesses to establish who's who online - and what they can do.
With a strong reputation built on a 20-year history of ingenuity, leadership and proven technologies, we serve
approximately 20,000 customers around the globe and interoperate with more than 1,000 technology and integration
partners. For more information, please visit http://www.rsasecurity.com/
RSA and SecurID is a registered trademark or trademark of RSA Security Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
eFraudNetwork is either a registered trademark, service mark or trademark of RSA Security in the United States and/or
other countries. All other products and/or services mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.