Hackers attacking online bank accounts

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NEW YORK, July 30 (UPI) -- Online banking, used by most U.S. households, is not as safe as the standard face-to-face practices of the past, bank consultant group Novantas reported.

Online attacks against individual accounts are sophisticated and insidious, Novantas, and the American Bankers Association (ABA) reported.

Online bank users should monitor their accounts on an "almost daily basis," an ABA official said in an article in Friday's edition of USA Today.

The use of personal computers and cellphones makes it much easier for hacker attacks on bank accounts, said Doug Johnson, ABA vice president of risk management.

Novantas said about 80 of U.S. households are banking over the Internet.

"The customer needs to really recognize that security is most effective when they work in partnership with their financial institution," Johnson told the newspaper.

Hackers developed almost 66,000 virus programs designed to attack Internet accounts in one year alone, the paper reported.