Financial institutions that truly want to bolster their online security need to look beyond the federal guidelines on end-user authentication that go into effect Jan. 1, IT managers and analysts said last week. The guidelines, issued last year by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), call on banks and credit unions to adopt so-called strong authentication measures for protecting online customers against identity theft and other types of fraud. Strong authentication certainly isnt a silver bullet, said Melissa Auchter, CIO at Parda Federal Credit Union in Rochester, Mich. It just protects one doorway. Its one more measure in a comprehensive approach to protecting the assets of our members.