Security and System Requirements

Security Requirements

We understand that Internet security is important to our customers. The National Bank employs a range of security measures designed to protect your trade information. Firewall devices, together with 128-bit SSL encryption technology, help to provide a high level of protection.

The National Bank has also deployed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which will enable you to access Direct Trade Services in a more secure environment.

PKI issues unique electronic identities to each business customer. These identities are encoded in a digital certificate, which is stored in a chip on a smart card. You can use smart cards to log onto Direct Trade Services. In this way a digital certificate acts like an electronic equivalent of a passport.

The unique electronic identity contained within each digital certificate helps the Bank to confirm, with a higher level of confidence, the sender's (customer's) identity, which is one of the main challenges to conducting business on the Internet.

Through PKI, users can be authenticated via a central gateway. The gateway intercepts URL calls, helping to ensure that only authorised persons can access Direct Trade Services.

There are documents you need to read if you want to use the PKI service.

Your Password

Passwords used for accessing Direct Trade Services must follow these rules:

Passwords must:

  • Contain at least 10 characters but no more than 14 characters
  • Contain both upper and lower case letters
  • Contain at least one number (0-9).

Passwords must not:

  • Contain three consecutive characters that are the same
  • Be the same as your User ID, First Name, Last Name, or log on name regardless of case
  • Start or end with a space character
  • Be the same as any of your last 13 passwords.

Passwords are case sensitive (for example xyz0123abc is different to Xyz0123abc).

Passwords expire every 30 days.

After three failed log on attempts (five for smart card users) your account will be locked. The count is cumulative and is not reset after you successfully log in. However the count is reset when a password is changed.

A Full Access User within your company can reset User ID and password access.

For smart card users the password may only be reset by the Helpdesk

Your Computer

Within Direct Trade Services, a default of 15 minutes has been set as the amount of time your banking session can remain unattended. After this time, the system automatically "logs off" and ends your session.

Remember, if you are not using your computer for a period of time, make sure you "log out" completely from Direct Trade Services so that sensitive banking information cannot be viewed by others.

System Requirements

Direct Trade Services has the following system requirements:

Hardware

To access Direct Trade Services, you need a PC capable of accessing the Internet.

If you are using a smart card to log on to Direct Trade Services:

  • Your PC must have spare serial or USB port for a smart card reader and a CD ROM drive
  • A National Bank supported smart card reader (either serial or USB).

Operating system

  • Windows 98, 2000, NT 4.0 - with Service Pack 6a+
  • XP Professional

Video resolution

  • 800x600 screen resolution (higher resolution recommended)

Brower version

  • Internet Explorer 5.x and above. If using IE 5.5, must have Service Pack 2 installed
  • Netscape 4.78 through to Netscape 5.0

Brower Settings

  • JavaScript enabled
  • Cookies enabled
  • Style sheets enabled (Netscape only)
  • Print background colours and images (Internet Explorer only)
  • Java applets enabled (required if you will be viewing documents or performing custom reporting).

Internet connection

  • Broad band connection recommended, minimum specification is for 56K modem.
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