Feature Story: Why did Decorah Bank change its website name?

Decorah Bank & Trust now has a new name for its website. Although customers can still access the bank's website through www.decorahbank.com, the official website name is now www.decorah.bank. Decorah Bank Chief Information Officer and Security Office Andrew Wood says the switch to a website ending with .bank will give customers great security online. Wood explains that a common type of online fraud involves phony websites which are created to look like a company's actual website. That extends to the name of the website. For instance, an extra letter could be added to the URL address or a letter left out. Crooks can purchase the look-alike URL name, then set up a website design that asks someone to provide financial information, allowing the crooks to steal the money. While it's common to have such "phishing" attacks with websites ending in .com or .org, extra security is in effect when someone wants to use a website name ending in .edu or .gov—or .bank. Additional information must be provided to prove that an educational group is really an educational group—or that a bank is really a bank. Only a bank which has completed the authentication process can register a domain ending in .bank. There are just under 700 financial institutions in the world using the .bank extension at this time--and Decorah Bank & Trust is one of them. The switch was made mid-March--although the www.decorahbank.com URL is still active and is forwarding people to the new www.decorah.bank URL. Decorah Bank & Trust Marketing Director Linnea Rahlf says there has been "only positive feedback" about the new more secure website name since Decorah Bank & Trust switched to it. She calls the .bank extension "a stamp of trust" for the bank's customers.