Wells Fargo is offering safe document storage

[img_assist|nid=7626|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=100]People may securely store their files of almost any format in the Web-based virtual safe-deposit box offered by Wells Fargo, a diversified financial services company in the United States. The service is known as vSafe.

"You can import any electronic or digitized document," explains Stephanie Smith, senior vice president of the Wells Fargo Internet services group. There are preset folders, such as "Medical" and "Family," which help users to arrange their documents, and users can create or delete folders to personalize the storage solution, she adds. "Customers can just drag and drop their documents into those folders," Smith says.

The technology uses the same security tools and stores customer information behind the same firewall that the bank uses for its online banking platform.

"It's an extension of what we've been doing for 156 years -- safely and securely storing customer information," Smith comments.

If necessary to set additional protection, users can secure their accounts with two-factor authentication supported by RSA's hardware tokens, which can be purchased from the bank. RSA (Bedford, Mass.) is the security division of EMC (Hopkinton, Mass.).

The system is planned to be integrated with Wells Fargo's other online banking services. It is said to be created without any vendor support. "We built this ourselves," says Smith, adding that the solution employs "much of the same [technology] as we use for Wells Fargo online banking."

To crown it all, the system will enable customers "lessen their carbon footprints ... through online banking." Customer statements will be uploaded to their vSafe accounts automatically.

Using the vSafe service for $4.95 a month, Wells Fargo customers will be able to store one gigabyte of information which corresponds to 10,000 documents.