Yes. Connection provides secure financial services through a protocol known as the Secure Sockets Layer. The Secure Sockets Layer prevents other computers along the route from eavesdropping by encrypting all data transmitted between our site and your computer. Intermediate computers would see each packet of information as a meaningless jumble of bytes. The sending end encrypts, or encodes, the data with one key before it is transmitted. The receiving end decrypts, or decodes, the data with another key.

Members that live in the United States can use browsers that support 128 bit keys. Cracking a 128 bit key would involve trying all 2 to the 128th power combinations. Members that live abroad are currently restricted by the US Government to using browsers that support 40 bit keys. Cracking a 40 bit key would involve trying all 2 to the 40th power combinations, which is over one trillion combinations. A 40 bit key is less secure than a 128 bit key, but does provide an adequate level of security for member financial services.

The Secure Sockets Layer validates the identity of our site to you through the use of a digital certificate. After you connect to our site in secure mode, our site sends your browser a signed digital certificate, which contains the name of our Web server, its public encryption key, the certificate's validity dates, the name of the certification authority that issued the digital certificate to our site, and an unforgeable digital signature. The digital certificate authenticates to you that you are indeed connecting to our site.

The Secure Sockets Layer ensures that the data transmitted between your computer and our site has not been tampered with through the use of Message Authentication Codes (MACs). A MAC is based on the actual data itself, similar to a checksum. This provides a quick way for the receiving end to verify that the data wasn't changed enroute.Our site requires that you use a browser that supports SSL and Cookies