"What we're really trying to do is stay one step ahead of the bad guys," commented Tim Thornton, head of Vanguard's Web services. "We've done a lot of stuff to make sure that our systems are security, but this takes it a step farther."
Roy Weitz, publisher of
He noted that people monitor their bank accounts far more frequently than they look at their mutual funds, rendering them more far more likely to detect identify theft in a bank account. Undetected for a long period of time, a criminal would have an easier time of depleting an investor's mutual fund account.
The