For those who might be interested...

[mrph]

High street bank Barclays plans to issue hand-held card readers to all of its 1.6 million active online banking customers to tighten security and combat identity theft.

The firm will provide the standalone calculator-sized two-factor authentication devices throughout 2007.

Comments

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Online fraud us going up at a fairly impressive rate. There also seems to be a shift from email scams to trojans and more subtle devices.

As to whether these will be compulsory... I guess we have to wait and see. They might just be a tool to enhance what the bank feels you can 'safely' do online.