Network Security & Hardware: Images of IBM's Latest Answer to Online Banking Security

IBM researchers have developed a prototype USB device designed to protect online banking transactions. Named the Zone Trusted Information Channel, the device plugs into a PC USB port and creates a direct, secure channel to a bank's online transaction server, bypassing the PC, which could be infected by malware or susceptible to hacker attacks.

The device is about the size of a memory stick. It runs the commonly used TLS/SSL [Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer] protocol. The ZTIC hardware consists conceptually at a minimum of a processing unit, volatile and persistent memory, a small display, at least two control buttons—OK and Cancel—and an optional smart-card reader. The software is minimally configured with a complete TLS engine, an HTTP parser for analyzing the data exchanged between client and server, custom system software implementing the USB mass storage device profile, and a networking proxy for running on a PC.