PassMark Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is PassMark?
The PassMark Solution provides added safety by helping to ensure that only you can access your account and account information. Your PassMark is a picture and caption that is a shared secret between you and the bank. When you see your PassMark you can be confident that you are at Southern Commercial Bank’s web site and not an imposter or spoof site.

Make sure you see your PassMark before you enter your password!

In addition, the PassMark Solution remembers which computer(s) you normally use, preventing potential fraudsters from logging in to your account even if they somehow get ahold of or guess your username and password.

2. Why do I need a PassMark?
PassMark is an enhanced security feature that helps protect you while you access your account online. It protects you from spoof websites that attempt to steal your identity by impersonating the web site you trust. We are committed to proactively protecting you against such attacks. PassMark helps us do this.

3. How does it work?
When you visit your branch office, you recognize our faces and we recognize yours. PassMark allows a similar identification process to take place when you are online. When you enroll in PassMark you will select a secret picture and caption known only to you. When you log in we will display this picture so you can be certain that you are accessing the bank’s site and not an impostor site. We also check the computer(s) or device(s) that you are using to access the web site. Typically you will access the web site from one or two computers such as your work and home PCs. PassMark remembers your computer. Should you need to log in from a different computer, such as an Internet café, we will take additional steps to verify your identity such as ask you to provide the answer to secret questions we both know the answers to. Additionally PassMark remembers your computer by assigning a unique identifier to each computer used by you to access our site using standard secure cookies. The cookie is used to store the identification information only. No personal or private data is stored in any way. If we use this we need to give a simple explanation of what a cookie* is.

4. How is PassMark more secure?
PassMarks protect you from accidentally revealing your user name and password to a spoof site. In addition, if someone does somehow get your username and password he will still not be able to access your account because he is not at your registered computer.

5. What keeps somebody from stealing my PassMark picture?
We only show you your PassMark picture and caption if you log in from your own computer or after you have answered a secret question. So it is not possible for an unauthorized person to get access to your picture.

6. Why am I being asked a question when I try to log in?
We ask you a secret question when we detect that you are trying to log in from a new computer. This is to prevent someone with stolen passwords from logging into your account. Since only you know the answer to the questions, we will know it’s really you. Generally you will be asked to answer a secret question only when you log in for the first time from a new computer. After you answer the question you will be asked whether we should remember this computer for future log ins. If you are using a personal computer you should answer yes. If you are using a public terminal you need to answer no.

7. Can I access my account from multiple computers?
Yes. You can still access your bank account from any number of computers. If you log in from a new computer or a public terminal you will just need to go through one extra step of answering a secret question. This helps to protect you by keeping unauthorized people from accessing your personal information. There is no limit to how many different computers you can use to log in to your bank account.

8. I am not an Internet expert. How easy is PassMark to use?
PassMark is extremely simple for anyone to use. You don’t need to memorize anything new—just use the site as usual and look for your PassMark at log-in.

9. I share my computer with someone who has their own bank account. Can both of us still log in from this machine?
Yes. You can both use the same computer to log in to your individual bank accounts. There is no limit on how many people can log in to the bank’s web site from the same computer.

10. What happens if someone steals my password? How will PassMark keep them from accessing my account?
When someone tries to log in using your stolen user name and password we will recognize that they are logging in from a different computer and ask them a secret question. Since only you know the answers to your secret questions, they will not be able to give a correct answer. They will not be able to log in.

11. How do you know I am logging in from my own computer?
When you log in for the first time from a new computer we put a secure (encrypted) cookie on your computer. This cookie contains a randomly generated unique number that identifies your computer. The cookie is visible only to the bank web site and does not contain any of your personal information. When you log in after that your web browser sends us this cookie. This lets us know that this is your computer.

12. What is Phishing?
Recently there have been attempts by fraudsters to trick people into revealing their personal information, such as passwords, by creating fake web sites that look very much like the sites of legitimate financial institutions. They send out emails randomly with links to these fake web sites. This phenomenon has been called Phishing, (pronounced “fishing”).

13. I am trying to log in from my own computer but the bank’s web site is not showing me my PassMark. Instead it is asking me a question. What is happening?
This might happen in rare cases if you have deleted all cookies on your computer. Before answering a secret question or entering your password make sure that you are going to the legitimate bank web site. The easiest way to ensure this is by typing the URL of the bank (www.bank.com) directly into your web browser. Then after you answer the security question you should see your secret PassMark next to the password field. If your PassMark is there you can be confident that you are at the legitimate web site and can enter your password.

14. What is a Trojan or Key Logger?
Some fraudsters have been putting programs on random computers in order to harvest your user id and password information used to log in to web sites. They collect this information and secretly transmit it to their own computers and attempt to log in to your site. These are called Trojans (short for Trojan Horse) or Key Loggers (for logging your keystrokes).

15. How does PassMark protect me from a Trojan or Key Logger?
Once you have a PassMark and have registered your computer, even if a fraudster steals your login ID and Password, his computer will not be registered and he will not be able to log in as you; thus, PassMarks protects your identity and your account.

*A cookie refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server.

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PassMark Frequently Asked Questions

Make sure you see your PassMark before you enter your password!