Bank of Valletta has launched ‘BOV Protect’ a service that is backed by a software package that is being offered to customers free of charge. BOV Protect provides an added layer of internet security on the customer’s personal computer.

“Whilst the Bank’s systems are secured by a state of-the-art security infrastructure, the personal computers that our customers use to conduct their internet banking transactions can be infected by malicious software (malware) designed to simulate situations which could lead to online banking fraud. Now, by installing the BOV Protect service, our customers can protect their personal computers and keep them clean of financial malware, thus increasing security when online,” said Michael Galea, Chief Officer Operations at Bank of Valletta. “This is yet another layer of security that we are adding on to our 24x7 services so as to assist our customers to be safer and more secure during their online banking sessions,” added Mr. Galea.

BOV Protect was developed in collaboration with Trusteer, a market leader in financial security and provider of the Trusteer Rapport software. The software helps detect and neutralise financial malware on a personal computer.

Launching the service, Mr Galea said, “Bank of Valletta was the pioneer of internet banking in Malta. We were the first bank to introduce token driven authentication when we launched the BOV Securekey in 2002. We are now proud to be the first to offer our customers this important additional service to protect their personal computers when they are performing Internet Banking or paying for products and services online”.

BOV Protect is available for free and the software can be easily downloaded and installed through Bank of Valletta’s website www.bov.com. Once installed, the software does not require any particular maintenance or user intervention, but will alert the user if it detects high risk behaviour and/or financial malware on the PC.

BOV Protect is designed to offer automatic protection to customers accessing the BOV website and the BOV internet banking services. It can, however, also be set to provide protection on other internet sites. The BOV Protect security application is designed to work on the most common browsers and operating systems.

Further information and assistance can be obtained from the Bank’s website www.bov.com, by calling on 21312 2020, or visiting the nearest branch.