At Univest, we are committed to protecting your personal and financial information. We also believe that keeping our customers informed is one of the best ways to help protect against online fraud and identity theft.
Learn about some effective strategies for protecting yourself and your business.
| How We Protect You | How We Communicate With You | How to Protect Yourself |
| How to Protect Your Business | Reporting Fraud | Identity Theft |
How We Protect You
Univest maintains physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal guidelines to guard your non-public personal information against unauthorized access or use.
Encryption
We use 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for all communications between your browser and our servers to protect the confidentiality of your data.
Firewall Usage
We use firewalls to block unauthorized access to our systems and networks.
Automated Time Out
We automatically log you out of your secure session after a period of inactivity to help protect against others accessing your information.
Secure Messaging and E-Mail
As part of its information security policy, Univest does not allow any personally identifiable information such as account numbers, Social Security Numbers, etc. to be revealed through e-mail or without strict authentication mechanisms.
Technology Updates
We are continually evaluating our security systems to ensure that we provide the latest and most secure level of privacy and security for our customers.
Fraud Prevention Services
Univest offers a variety of tools to help you prevent or deter incidents of fraud and identity theft, including:
- e-Statements – Go paperless and reduce the risk of mail fraud and identity theft by receiving your Univest Bank statements online.
- E-mail Alerts - Stay informed of account activity with email alerts and help protect yourself from fraud.
- Online Banking - Use our Online Banking service to check current account activity for your Univest accounts to help you stay on top of your accounts and detect fraud early.
QuickView E-Mails - View an entire snapshot of your account activity and stay on top of what’s happening with your checking or savings accounts.
How We Communicate With You
When you contact Univest, we will verify your identity before sharing account information or performing transactions on your behalf.
We may ask you to verify the information we have on record for you or we may ask you questions designed to establish that we are speaking to you.
We may contact you by email with offers or to provide account information.
Our Fraud department may contact you if we detect potentially suspicious activity on your account. Fraud agents will require verification of your identity prior to discussing your account.
We may contact you by phone or through other channels for various reasons. If you are ever unsure whether the party contacting you is Univest, please feel free to contact us directly using the contact numbers on our website or on your bank statement.
How to Protect Yourself
Use Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Software
Viruses and spyware are harmful programs that can be installed on your computer, phone or mobile device without your consent. These programs can corrupt or delete data on your computer, collect confidential information or use your contact list to spread itself to other computers. Make sure your computer has anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed to protect against malicious software and computer viruses. Ensure that these programs are set up to run automatically and keep them updated.
Firewalls
Install a personal firewall on your computer. Firewalls help prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer and are especially important if you have a broadband connection.
Keep Software Current
Install software updates as soon as possible to help reduce your computer's vulnerability.
Protect Your Personal Information
Never disclose your personal or financial information, including passwords, account numbers or answers to security questions unless you’re sure of whom you’re dealing with and understand why they need your information. Be particularly careful if a request is made with an urgent or threatening tone. Criminals often use this method to obtain your personal and financial information.
Emails
Don't open or respond to email from senders you don't know. Criminals send out fake emails to random email addresses that appear to come from a reputable company. These emails are called ‘phishing’ emails and are one of the many ways criminals try to trick customers into giving personal information.
Don't open attachments or click on links in emails from unknown senders. Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in email messages and links can sometimes take you to websites that are fake versions of legitimate business websites. These fake websites are created by criminals in an attempt to gather your personal and financial information.
Pop-Up Windows
Do not click on or reply to pop-up messages that request you to update or provide personal information. Identity thieves may use pop-up windows or ads to try to obtain your personal information.
How to Protect Your Business
Dedicated Computer
Dedicate and restrict one computer for financial transactions to minimize any risk of obtaining viruses or malware that could result from opening emails or Internet links. In addition, lock or log off the computer when left unattended.
Risk Assessment
Perform periodic risk assessments to assess the security vulnerability of your computers and network. Identify any gaps and improvement opportunities to ensure the safety of your financial data and resources.
Financial Applications
Restrict employee access to confidential and sensitive information. You may also want to conduct random audits on documentation involving employees with access to financial records and documents.
IDs and Passwords
Create secure passwords that are easy to remember but hard for others to guess. Avoid names, birthdays and common phrases since they are usually easy for others to guess. Choose different passwords for different applications and consider changing your passwords frequently.
Do not share your username and password with others. Be careful when sharing your username and password with websites or software.
Employees
Educate employees not to open suspicious emails as they can potentially infect their computers with viruses or other malicious software.
Reporting Fraud
If you believe you have received fraudulent e-mail, disclosed confidential information or have questions about online security, please contact us at 1.877.723.5571.
