Halifax Bank scans the machines of surfers that land on its login page whether or not they are customers, it has emerged.

Security researcher Paul Moore has made his objection to this practice – in which the British bank is not alone – clear, even though it is done for good reasons. The researcher claimed that performing port scans on visitors without permission is a violation of the UK’s Computer Misuse Act (CMA).

Halifax has disputed this, arguing that the port scans help it pick up evidence of malware infections on customers’ systems. The scans are legal, Halifax told Moore in response to a complaint he made on the topic last month.

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