Pentagon Moves to Protect Pay Data

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service Wednesday announced a new security feature to its myPay system that is intended to help protect data about the 5.9 million people whose paychecks are processed through the system.

In an attempt to strengthen password and account security to protect users' data, beginning in mid-May, the system will use has a "virtual keyboard" designed to protect against malicious software such as spyware, trojan horse programs and keystroke logging.

When users arrive at myPay, the virtual keyboard will appear on the screen. Users will type in their login IDs and then click on the keys on the screen with their mouse rather than using the standard keyboard to enter their personal identification number.

More from a DFAS release:

"This is a significant move toward adding yet another layer of security to our myPay system," said Pat Shine, director of operations for DFAS. "We want to reassure our customers that we are proactively working to secure their pay account information."

DFAS uses a variety of security features to protect your data on the myPay system, yet we ask that customers do everything they can to protect data from being compromised or captured on home computers.