I just received a call from a financial institution that is interested in doing testing of its security measures that are designed to guard against pretext calling. They feel their security measures are well-designed and their employees have been thoroughly trained, but they'd like to see if the employees are really doing what they've been taught to do and they would like to find a firm that has experience in testing. Know of anyone who does this type of work?

Crowe-Chizek did a penetration test for our internet banking & information security systems last fall, and parts of the testing included password cracking, dumpster diving, and pretext calling defenses. I would assume that many of the audit firms handle this.

Yep, Wolf & Co. does our information systems reviews, and they've done some pretext calling as part of their reviews as well. You might have the bank ask whomever they're using for their information systems audits, if they're using an external firm.

We used a company called Customer Perspectives out of New Hampshire. They performed our general customer service shops but we added a phone shop piece that incorporated verification that staff were confirming their identity according to our policies.