Citizens Bank’s web site have a certificate that is 2048 SHA-2 and only accepts TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. This encryption technology is so secure that it is classified by the U.S. Department of Defense, and law forbids export of this technology to other countries. As a further security measure, we utilize a firewall between the Internet and our site, thereby preventing your account data from being directly accessible over the Internet.

Security refers to preventing unauthorized access to a computer system or network. Citizens Bank uses several layers of technology to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to the banks network. Citizens Bank’s security professionals manage a sophisticated networking architecture that includes screening routers, filtering routers and firewalls.

The filtering router is used to shield Citizens Banks network from the Internet. All incoming traffic is passed through the firewall after filtering, which verifies the source and destination of each information packet, changes the IP address of the packet, and delivers it to the appropriate site within the Citizens Bank network. In this way, all inside addresses are protected from outside access, and the structure of Citizens Bank networks is invisible to outside observers.

In addition, Citizens Bank’s web host, utilizes firewall security that serves as a complete Internet gateway and firewall security system and delivers unrivaled security by design. The firewall prohibits any unauthorized access to the secured network.

Privacy refers to protecting the confidentiality of information en route over the Internet. Citizens Bank utilizes a secure website provided by a third party vendor. Individuals surfing our site with a browser that supports authentication and encryption have the option of utilizing this secure site. Browsers that support the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol provide the following:

Encryption
Encryption provides privacy for the data flowing on the Internet between your browser and web servers. SSL utilizes public key cryptography.

Public Key Cryptography
Public key cryptography is a technique that uses a pair of keys, one public (or distributed) and one private (or confidential), for encryption and decryption. The public key can be distributed using a certificate that verifies the identity of the owner. The private key is kept confidential.

Whenever an account holder accesses this Citizens Bank website, the session is protected by public key cryptography. To see at a glance if a session is secure, check the key icon at the lower left corner of your browser screen. If it is intact and a blue line appears at the top of the screen, then all messages are secure. If the icon appears as a picture of a broken key, then encryption is not in use and the current session is not secure.

Authentication
SSL protocol allows for the transfer of digitally signed certificates for authentication procedures and provides message integrity, which ensures that the data can’t be altered en route.