Security fears raised about screen scraping

Screen scraping technology is raising grave concerns about security risks across the financial services industry with some players fearing it could leave customers exposed to hackers.

BT Funds Management Internet marketing manager, Kathryn Dioth describes the security risks involved as "scary".

"I find it personally scary that people are willing to hand over passwords and access to their financial accounts to another entity - especially a portal that may only have been operating for six months," she says.

Screen scraping is designed to gather a customer's financial information from numerous Web sites and put it in one place. Customers provide passwords and access codes to the screen scraping company which then downloads their financial information to one site.

Westpac Financial Service's joint managing director, Michael Migro says that the bank would have to be convinced consumers really wanted the service before it would even contemplate allowing screen scrapers to access the Westpac site.

"We'd really have to see tremendous demand for it from consumers before we'd allow aggregators to scrape our site," he says.

However, screenscrapers only need the permission of the investor - not the institution - to gain access to an individual's accounts.

Online financial services group Bourse Data has already indicated it will use the technology and InvestorCities, the online group started by former InvestmentLink chief executive Gautum Tendulkar, has successfully raised one million dollars in seed capital to build its screen scraping service.

Tendulkar says that providing screen scrapers have external auditors, comply with the established e-commerce regulation and use computer encryption, screen scraping does not pose a security risk.

"It all depends on who is doing the screen scraping," he says. "Providing the screen scraper acts in accordance with the established regulatory guidelines, then it's no more dangerous than getting your money out of an ATM."