Jre

I've never understood JRE or the dangers it can pose so don't have it installed. But my wife opened an online account with State Bank of India which we have never successfully been able to log into and this is probably because the website says you must have at least JRE 1.4 installed. It also appears that they expect you to use IE. It doesn't actually say so but does say to check several IE settings.

We aren't comfortable with this situation and are thinking of closing the account, but are we being over cautious? If a major bank requires JRE then surely it cannot be a major security risk? Any advice?

 

Not a single UK or US bank that I know of requires Java Runtime.
Why not email them and tell them they are still in the dark ages of the internet?
After all, India is a centre for cutting edge IT.

 

You do now Max Not interested in having an IT debate with them, just want access. I switched to using a VM with IE and JRE but still can't log in. ID and PW are correct so no option really but to close the account.

 

What Max said JREs have a history of vulnerabilities. Sandbox or VM is a way to go, but can be a hassle to find a setup to work. I noticed even Oracle has their own VM box products Account change seems to be the best option

 

Then you either install JRE or just go elsewhere. They will answer you if you email them. Talk to the monkey not the organ grinder.

 

I don't have any issues doing any of this via a VM but there are clearly problems with the bank website. We encountered them when setting up this account and clearly things have not improved in the meantime. Time to fall back on snail mail and a cheque on this occasion I think. Thanks guys.

 

How does the bank server rate for security? https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html

 

Doesn't sound great What does it mean?

 

It means I wouldn't trust it with anything valuable...

Drilling down into the details for each server might help figure out what they need to upgrade - but that's down to them to figure out and fix, add it to your next communication with them.

 

Thanks for the help with this. They are covered by the UK £75k guarantee. Makes you question how thorough that check is.

 

And look for the get out clauses in it.

CC your communications to as high a person as you can find, CEO and whoever is in charge of security, if you can.