PC Branch Security Features

When you log onto PC Branch from the DCU home page or any other link in our site, your Member Number and password are sent over the Internet from your computer to ours using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. SSL encrypts your personal information before it leaves your computer, ensuring that no one else can read it. See Key encryption below.

Security Upgrade

In order to ensure security, recent upgrades to PC Branch have been made. These upgrades may cause some members (namely those using third party software) to be unable to log-in to PC Branch. Some third party software installed into standard browsers and computers (i.e. toolbars, adware, etc.) make attempts to directly interact with PC Branch using non-authorized methods. Many of these browser add-ins are known to be spyware products which we believe should not be allowed. Therefore, any member who has this type of software may not be allowed to log-in to PC Branch. If you cannot log-in to PC Branch for this reason, please select here.

Transmissions between your PC and the PC Branch file servers are encrypted or scrambled so only those two computers can decipher them. Browser software with a minimum of 128-bit strong encryption is required. You cannot access PC Branch unless you are using a browser equipped with encryption technology (also known as SSL or Secure Socket Layering).

Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are available with 128-bit encryption. The 128-bit encryption is so secure that the U.S. government had export restrictions on Navigator and Explorer. You can tell when a site is secure (encrypted) by a symbol on your browser – most often a picture of a closed lock in the lower left corner of your screen. You can further enhance the security of your browser by updating your PC's operating system to Microsoft Windows 2000.

Note: To use PC Branch, you need to make sure your browser is set to use SSL version 3.0. Browsers released after 1996 should be okay. If you cannot access PC Branch, we recommend you upgrade your browser. See What software do I need for version and downloading information.

In the User Options section, you can set the how fast the PC Branch session will automatically close if there is no activity. This is important if you are accessing your accounts from your office or a public location where people would have access to the PC if you walked away without closing your session.

Typically, Internet pages you recently visited are stored in a cache on your computer so they pop up faster when you return to them. The account information pages in PC Branch are set up so they cannot be stored in your computer’s cache. This is so the pages you’ve looked at are no longer on your computer after you log off. If you walk away from your PC at work, for example, no one can use your browser’s back button to view account information after your session is over.

If someone has discovered your member number and tries to guess your password, the third incorrect password entry in a row (without a successful logon) immediately blocks PC Branch account-access by electronic services to your member number. You have to tell us to unlock it.

As an added measure of security, you will be required to change your standard DCU PIN the first time you log in to PC Branch. You must use any Alpha-Numeric combination (at least one of each) with a minimum of 6 digits and up to 16 characters long. Blank spaces and special characters can not be used.

NEVER disclose your PIN or password to anyone – not even us! No one at DCU knows your PIN or password and no one at DCU will ever ask for it. If you forget or lose it, let us know. Our data processing system will print you a new copy in an sealed mailer. No one will see it until you open it.

Of course,that's not all the security features PC Branch provides, but we won't describe them all to you. Secrecy about security measures is part of what makes them so secure.