First Midwest unveils system to protect clients From online fraud

Itasca-based First Midwest Bank recently announced the introduction of PhoneFactor, a service designed to protect its business banking clients from online bank fraud.

PhoneFactor, headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, is a global provider of out-of-band multi-factor authentication. With PhoneFactor, First Midwest clients are empowered to stop online banking fraud in real-time by utilizing out-of-band transaction verification.

When a funds transfer is submitted online, PhoneFactor places an automated call to the client. The client answers the call, listens to the transaction details, and enters a secret personal identification number into the phone keypad to approve the transaction. If the transaction is not approved, it is never submitted to the bank for processing. Another significant feature of PhoneFactor allows a client to submit an alert during a fraudulent funds transfer attempt, which instantly notifies the bank that an attack is in progress.

First Midwest's decision to offer this new service provided by PhoneFactor, was made to enhance the bank's already effective security program, the company said in a statement. The additional protection afforded by this new service was validated within a few weeks after it was enabled, as it successfully thwarted a number of attempts by attackers on clients' accounts. Additionally, the recently updated 2011 Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Authentication Guidance recommends out-of-band transaction verification as part of a layered security approach and this new service is consistent with those guidelines.

“PhoneFactor has already proven its effectiveness and we strongly believe that out-of-band transaction verification is critical to stopping threats that have become more sophisticated and virulent,” stated Jorge Solis, senior vice president of security. “We are very pleased to be able to offer this extended level of security to our clients who view us as their trusted business partner.”

A significant number of First Midwest clients responded to the new service offering and enrolled in the new system within the first few weeks of its availability. Clients were able to signup through an entirely automated Web page at firstmidwest.com/phonefactor, which enabled rapid deployment and adoption.