Security

The privacy and security of the communications between you (your computer or mobile device’s internet browser) and our servers is ensured using cryptography.

Cryptography scrambles data exchanged between your browser and our online banking server. Encryption happens as follows:

• When you go to the sign-on page for online banking, your browser establishes a secure session with our server. This secure session is established using a protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Encryption.
• This protocol requires the exchange of what are called public and private keys. Keys are random numbers chosen for that session and are only known between your Internet browser and our online banking server.
• After the keys are exchanged, your browser will use the numbers to scramble (encrypt) the data sent between your browser and our server. Both sides require the keys because the data needs to be de-scrambled (un-encrypted) when it is received.

The SSL protocol not only ensures privacy, but also ensures that no other browser can “impersonate” your browser, nor alter any of the data that is transmitted. You can tell whether your browser is in secure mode by looking for a lock symbol at the bottom of your browser window.

The numbers used as encryption keys are similar to combination locks. The strength of encryption is based on the number of possible combinations that a lock can have. As the number of possible combinations increases, it becomes less likely that anyone or any other computer would be able to match the combination in order to read the message. Internet browsers offer 40-bit or 128-bit encryption. Both result in a large number of combinations, 2 to the 40th and 2 to the 128th power. Our online banking servers require the use of 256-bit encryption to ensure the highest level of security for your data.

Information Collected on the Internet

Credit Union does not require you to provide any personal information to obtain access to our website (except for information obtained through “cookies” as described below). Personal information from visitors to our website is often provided on a voluntary basis. For example, you may provide information to apply for a product or to use our online banking service. We do not disclose any personal information about visitors to our website except in accordance with our general privacy policy that is provided to our customers, or as otherwise permitted by law.

The law requires parental consent to collect or use information from a child under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Please do not provide us with any personal information if you are under the age of 13.

The Credit Union website and our Internet Banking system may, from time to time, contain links to other sites. The Credit Union is not responsible for the privacy or security practices employed

by these third party sites. We recommend that you review their privacy policy before you provide any personal information.

The Credit Union may also collect non-personal information about you or your online activities whenever you visit our web site. We may use standard software to collect non-identifying information about our visitors, such as:

• Date and time our site was accessed
• IP address (A numeric address given to servers connected)
• Web browser used
• City, state, and country

The information detailed below may be collected and used to measure the number of visitors (but only in an aggregate and non-personally-identifiable form) to the Credit Union’s web sites and web pages, and to help make the web site more useful.

• Use of any financial tools and calculators on our web site
• The dates and times that you access a Credit Union web site
• the web pages you visit
• If you link to a Credit Union web site from other web sites, the address(s) of the other web sites
• The types and versions of browser and operating systems you use to access a Credit Union web site
• The Internet Service Providers (“ISP”) and Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses from which you access a Credit Union web site (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web)
• The actions you try to perform (for example, downloading a document) and whether you are successful

Credit Union may place “cookies” on your computer when you visit our web site. These are files that enable our web site to recognize return visitors. Cookies are lines of text that are transmitted to your web browser when you click on a link. Your browser stores the information on your hard drive and when you return to that site later, the cookie is transmitted back to the server that originally sent it to you. If you are an online banking customer and you choose to accept your computer as a secure device, a cookie will be placed on the device so you do not have to answer the security questions every time you log in. This is the only information stored and it is only stored on your personal device. Credit Union does not store any of your personal information in our cookies. The cookies we use are only for site management purposes and do not contain any sensitive information such as your password or account number.