Caisse d’Épargne: a new rule for 17 million customers

A new development that 17 million customers need to know about.

This is an important change for Caisse d’Épargne’s 17 million customers. Although it is not necessarily a radical measure, it is now a requirement for accessing your accounts. Here is what you need to know.

A necessary security measure

As L’Internaute reports, a new security rule now applies when changing your confidential code. Users can no longer choose a six-digit password matching their date of birth. If you nevertheless try to bypass the system, your request will simply be rejected. Some customers may find this restrictive, but it is ultimately for the greater good.

As our colleagues point out, Caisse d’Épargne is not the first bank to introduce this system; BNB and CIC have done the same. It is a sensible initiative given the vast amount of French people's personal data circulating on the dark web. Malicious parties would otherwise only need to test some of that information to access your online account.

Caisse d’Épargne accounts and safer passwords

The change is intended to make it harder for criminals to exploit easily available personal details when attempting to access customers’ online banking spaces.

French people remain too careless with passwords

Despite repeated warnings, French people continue to pay too little attention to their passwords. Year after year, studies reach the same conclusion: most internet users still opt for basic combinations that hackers can easily guess.

A Specops report reveals an alarming ranking in which “123456”, “admin” and “password” are among the passwords most frequently stolen. The analysis also shows that even when users comply with the complexity requirements set by platforms, this is no longer enough to ensure their accounts are secure.

Indeed, 230 million stolen passwords still met the usual standards, highlighting the need to adopt additional safeguards, such as multi-factor authentication, to strengthen the protection of personal data.

According to another NordPass study, the 20 most commonly used passwords in 2024 are full of number sequences, first names and nicknames, all of which automated tools can crack with ease. Experts nevertheless urge users to choose unique, long and complex passwords to reduce the risk of unauthorised access. More information on this subject can be found in our previous article here.