E*Trade RSA Key

I read a statistic in E*Trade’s annual report that really caught my attention. Speaking about an increase in expenses, “These increases were due primarily to a 212% increase in fraud related losses to $31.2 million for 2006.” (link) I really doubt that this is a statistic that is unique to E*Trade. I think it is also indicative that Security and Identity is going to start being a very hot topic with CIOs.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to get an RSA key. I highly recommend that everyone secures their account the same way, especially if they are running Windows or OSX. I believe that those operating systems are far more susceptible to keylogging than Linux. My review of the key? It is easy to use and you’d be foolish not to get one.

And on an unrelated note, I noticed that E*Trade is experimenting with XBRL for its SEC filings. The SEC is actively driving the change to this new (and open!) format.