Bank of America Corp.'s MBNA Europe Bank said Thursday that it is providing customers in the U.K. with added security for online shopping by offering a service from McAfee Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
"Millions of people are spending their hard-earned money online, but concerns about credit card security are high," Ian O'Doherty, Europe executive for MBNA, said in a press release. "We have layers of protection on our cards, but we'll continue to do more to make our customers safer."
The software package, which MBNA is offering free for a year, includes antivirus, spyware and adware protection, in addition to a two-way firewall that can repel hackers. It also flags suspicious Web links within searches, e-mail and instant messages, among other things.
MBNA is making the service available to all U.K. customers who have signed up for online banking.
The new service is in addition to layers of security MBNA already uses for online banking customers, including SiteKey, which helps MBNA customers and the bank recognize one another, and 3-D Secure, which helps MBNA secure online shopping.
In August, MBNA commissioned a survey of 752 U.K. credit card customers.
Eighty-eight percent said security and protection was a vital part of their credit card's features and 43% said it was the most important factor.
