Online Security FAQs

The Internet is a vast, largely unregulated, network of computers that spans the world. There are no laws that embrace the Internet in its entirety. The security and protection of your personal information and online transactions is therefore of paramount importance.

Accordingly, we have adopted a range of security practices designed to safeguard your information from unauthorised access.

Equally, online security requires your informed and alert participation. There is a range of things you should do to minimise the risk of fraud. ^

We have placed the utmost importance in ensuring that your personal details, funds and account information remain secure from unauthorised access.

Horizon Bank employs banking industry standard 128-bit encryption of confidential data sent to and from this site to ensure that no information can be intercepted and read by others. Encryption scrambles the data that is sent on the line to stop people who may try to tap into or hack into Internet communications. The closed padlock on the bottom of the Online Banking browser page indicates that the Online Banking site is secure.

Tip: To check that you are using a secure web address, look at the root of the web address following the letters "http://". In a secure site you will see "https:/". The letter "s" signifies that you are accessing a secured address. Unsecured addresses do not include a "s" in the root address; they start with "http://".

In addition, our system has various security features to safeguard your transactions and personal information. These include:

• secure login pages - your access information is encrypted (scrambled)
• customer chosen passwords - you can change your password at any time by selecting ‘Forgot password’ on the Online Banking login screen or by contacting your local branch
• password anonymity - you are the only person that knows your password
• The Online Banking login page is unable to be cached - this means that your personal login information is erased when you leave the login page and cannot be retrieved by anyone else using your computer system lock after 3 attempts –
• If a user enters a password incorrectly 3 times, Online Banking will be locked and the account blocked. The system can be unlocked and your password reset when Horizon Bank is contacted and the person is identified as the account owner.

Timeouts for session inactivity - your Online Banking session will time out after 15 minutes if there is no activity with your banking session 

We have employed a range of security measures to help protect your personal information and transactions. These measures extend from data encryption to firewalls to automatic timeouts. Therefore, when you do your banking online with us, you can be assured that your banking is safeguarded and protected.

There are two things you should do:

1. Become familiar with the types of online fraud you may experience.
2. Adopt responsible practices in relation to the protection of your own personal information.

If you receive a suspicious email purporting to come from a financial institution (see examples of the kinds of email scams you may experience):

Contact the financial institution to verify the email

Delete the email immediately and do not click on the link

If you have clicked on the link in the email:

 Perform a scan for possible viruses and Trojans using your virus protection software. Should you require further information, please contact your software vendor.

 After you have completed a scan on your computer, please contact your financial institution to report the occurrence and have your Online Banking password re-set.

 If you do not have anti-virus protection, we recommend that you do not use Online Banking until you have up-to-date anti-virus protection.

Your member number and password identify you to Online Banking. You must protect them at all times. Refer to our tips on protecting your password.

If you think that someone has accessed your member number and/or password you should:

• login to Online Banking and immediately change your password
• contact us to advise us of what has occurred.