New Security Services Introduced for Online Banking

The increasing importance many businesses are placing on internet security has been highlighted by a new move from Barclays.

According to the bank, its two million online customers are now to be given security software from Kaspersky - protecting their home computers against adware, spyware and viruses. Technology news source ZDNet.co.uk speculated today that the total cost of this extra provision could hit £200 million over two years.

Internet banking use has increased markedly in popularity in recent times, with research from Abbey last month even showing that people spent longer on bank sites than they did on social networking through MySpace or Facebook.

However, some customers have expressed concerns that revising their banking details or making transactions over the internet could lead to them being defrauded - which has led to banks introducing services designed to boost confidence such as that announced by Barclays today.

In a statement, the firm's director of digital banking, Sean Gilchrist, said: "For the last two years we have offered customers free antivirus software but, as internet fraudsters become more sophisticated, it is important that customers protect their computers from all threats and not just viruses."