I’m not sure how long this has been the case, as I check into my savings accounts very infrequently unless I happen to be transferring funds out, but I see that HSBC has joined in with their particular iteration of the pointless-hoops-to-jump-through login that has become so popular with online banking. Now instead of a single screen with two simple fields to fill – ID and password – I get the new-and-improved two page with three field, dual password one. And to top it off, one of the passwords must be entered by clicking on a ‘virtual keyboard’ with the mouse: 
I can see how strong authentication is something to strive for, and with all the phishing attempts out there these steps are probably a decent safeguard for those less tech savvy than, quite honestly, myself. I just wish there was an option (even a hard to find one) that would let me go back to the very basic login. I’m comfortable with the risk I was apparently taking prior to this change, and these new steps are nothing but an annoyance.
[tags]HSBC,security,customer service,annoyances[/tags]
