HomeTown Bank’s online banking for its customers provides many levels of security to protect their personal banking information. While we provide a certain amount of level for you with your online banking, you should also be protecting yourself and your personal computer. Here are a couple of tips and tricks to help to keep your information secure daily on your device.

  • Make sure you do not have the same password for all your accounts. Your password for your social media account should not be the same as your bank account or email.
  • Maintain up to date anti-virus and anti-malware on your computer systems that access financial websites.
  • Always log-off, not just closing the window, when you are done using a site where you had to log into.
  • Change your passwords periodically, and avoid reusing a password for at least one year.
  • Patch your operating system weekly and ensure that you are updating Java and Adobe applications weekly as well. Vulnerabilities in these applications are utilized by criminals constantly.
  • The more characters in your password or security question to answer the merrier! Try using at least eight characters of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols in the answer.
  • Use your PC firewall as a protective barrier between your computer and the outside world. It reduces threats to your computer from the Internet by filtering potentially dangerous data and preventing unauthorized access to your computer.
  • Do not use personal information or common words as a password.
  • Always use your pre-established link to access web sites. Never click on a link contained in an email.
  • Utilize the security and balance alerts to be notified via phone, e-mail, and/or text messages when activity occurs on the account. HomeTown Bank suggests using the Brella Card Manager app for this.

HomeTown Bank will never:

  • ask you for your online banking password.
  • contact you via email requesting you to click on a link inside the email.
  • send your non-public information via email unless it utilizes our secure email system.

The most important tip HomeTown Bank can provide to their customers is to never provide your account number or username/password in any written or verbal communication to any individual. This is especially true of email because your email being sent could be intercepted by a third party.