By, Dave Ackley, Director of Information Security and Risk Management at Camden National Bank
From email to texts to online shopping, many of us have come across a phishing attempt. This practice of posing as a legitimate business or person in order to gain access to personal information is now responsible for starting 90% of all cyberattacks. That’s why we’re making an important change to further improve your online safety by switching from CamdenNational.com to CamdenNational.bank on June 23rd.
Anatomy of a URL
Have you ever come across one of these error messages? When you visit a website, you may notice that it includes HTTPS in the URL with a lock icon next to it. HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, which signifies that you have a secure and encrypted connection to the website, and that the creator of the website obtained a security certificate to help protect your data. When you use HTTPS while entering a URL for a site that does not have the proper security in place, your browser will let you know the connection is not private.
Even secured websites that use HTTPS can be susceptible to spoof sites, or malicious copies of websites that attempt to take your login credentials and other personal data.
With the switch to .bank, we are now using a gated domain, like .gov or .edu, available only for verified banks. That means hackers can’t create lookalike sites or email addresses using .bank for phishing and spoofing, as they can in ‘.com’ and other publicly available domains. So every time you visit CamdenNational.bank, you can feel even more confident about your online safety.
Ahead of the pack
Skeptical because you haven’t heard of other banks doing it? While we may be the first bank you’ve seen make this change, we’ve joined more than 700 other banks across the world in making the switch, with your security in mind. The move to .bank is a business decision every bank must make based on its priorities and resources. Because your information security is a top priority for us, we’ve decided that this is the time to enhance our email communications and website.
What you can do
Starting June 23rd, you should authenticate our emails simply by looking for the “.bank” (rather than .com) at the end of our email addresses. Have any saved bookmarks or relying on your address bar to autofill our URL? Even though we’ll redirect you from CamdenNational.com to CamdenNational.bank, it’s great practice—and faster!—to update our information to include .bank.
With the change to .bank, you will need to reregister any devices that you’ve used for online banking on or after June 23rd. Get your secure access code where you’re expecting by ensuring your contact information is up-to-date under Settings > Security Preferences > Secure Delivery within digital banking
We love being your bank, and providing you with secure ways to communicate with us and manage your finances—no matter how you choose to bank. Thank you for choosing us.
