At this time and age, it is somewhat irresponsible for banks to accept uploads of plain-text files to their online banking services. Secure HHTP (HTTPS) alone does not address total security as somebody in one's organization has the ability to tamper the files prior to upload. And end-to-end encryption is not a one-sided affair --- both the bank and the customer application has to support it before it can be realized.
Of the four banks I've been involved with, two international banks support both plain-text and encrypted file uploads. One local bank accepts plain-text only; the other uses proprietary encryption BUT gives the encryption algo to your programmers!
At this time and age, there should be no excuse not to adopt industrial-strength cryptography. I managed to create a BeanShell script to encrypt files using the Bouncy Castle cryptography API for Java. The script produces an encrypted file named Encrypted.eml which can be opened and viewed by Mozilla Thunderbird. The encrypted payload can be delivered using this companion code.
You would need your own digital certificate, a public-key for your recipient and the file that you want encrypted. Get your free digital certificates from Comodo. To run the script, execute the command java -classpath ./bsh-2.0b4.jar bsh.Interpreter SnE.bsh, where SnE.bsh is the script name. Lastly, here's the code..
addClassPath( "./mail.jar" );
addClassPath( "./activation.jar" );
addClassPath( "./bcprov-jdk16-138.jar" );
addClassPath( "./bcmail-jdk16-138.jar" );
import javax.activation.FileDataSource;
import javax.activation.DataHandler;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.security.KeyStore;
import java.security.Security;
import java.security.PrivateKey;
import java.security.cert.CertificateFactory;
import java.security.cert.Certificate;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;
import java.security.cert.CertStore;
import java.security.cert.CollectionCertStoreParameters;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import javax.mail.Message;
import javax.mail.Session;
import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeBodyPart;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart;
import javax.activation.MailcapCommandMap;
import javax.activation.CommandMap;
import org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider;
import org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.SMIMEEnvelopedGenerator;
import org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.SMIMEException;
import org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.SMIMESignedGenerator;
import org.bouncycastle.util.Strings;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.smime.SMIMECapabilityVector;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.smime.SMIMECapability;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.smime.SMIMEEncryptionKeyPreferenceAttribute;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.smime.SMIMECapabilitiesAttribute;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.ASN1EncodableVector;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.x509.X509Name;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.cms.IssuerAndSerialNumber;
import org.bouncycastle.asn1.cms.AttributeTable;
public static final String pkcs12Keystore = "./certs/myOwn.p12";
public static final String rcptCertfile = "./certs/myBank.cer";
public static final String sendFile = "./messages/hello.txt";
public static final String ksPassword = "pipoltek";
public static final String frAddress = "rexjun@somewhere.com";
public static final String toAddress = "ca@myBank.com";
try
{
MailcapCommandMap mailcap = (MailcapCommandMap)CommandMap .getDefaultCommandMap();
mailcap .addMailcap("application/pkcs7-signature;; x-java-content-handler=org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.handlers.pkcs7_signature");
mailcap .addMailcap("application/pkcs7-mime;; x-java-content-handler=org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.handlers.pkcs7_mime");
mailcap .addMailcap("application/x-pkcs7-signature;; x-java-content-handler=org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.handlers.x_pkcs7_signature");
mailcap .addMailcap("application/x-pkcs7-mime;; x-java-content-handler=org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.handlers.x_pkcs7_mime");
mailcap .addMailcap("multipart/signed;; x-java-content-handler=org.bouncycastle.mail.smime.handlers.multipart_signed");
CommandMap.setDefaultCommandMap(mailcap);
/* Add BC */
Security.addProvider(new BouncyCastleProvider());
/* Open the keystore */
KeyStore keystore = KeyStore.getInstance("PKCS12", "BC");
keystore.load (new FileInputStream(pkcs12Keystore), ksPassword.toCharArray());
Enumeration e = keystore.aliases();
String keyAlias = null;
while (e.hasMoreElements() && (keyAlias == null)) {
String alias = (String)e.nextElement();
keyAlias = keystore.isKeyEntry(alias) ? alias : null;
}
if (keyAlias == null) {
System.err.println("Can't find a private key!");
System.exit(0);
}
Certificate[] chain = keystore.getCertificateChain(keyAlias);
/* Get the private key to sign the message with */
PrivateKey privateKey = (PrivateKey)keystore.getKey(keyAlias,
ksPassword.toCharArray());
if (privateKey == null) {
throw new Exception("No private key for alias: " + keyAlias);
}
/* Get public key of recipient for encryption */
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(rcptCertfile);
BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(fis);
CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");
Certificate rcptCert = cf.generateCertificate(bis);
/* Attach the file to encrypt */
MimeBodyPart bodyPart = new MimeBodyPart();
FileDataSource fds = new FileDataSource(sendFile);
bodyPart.setDataHandler(new DataHandler(fds));
bodyPart.setFileName(fds.getName());
MimeMultipart bodyMulti = new MimeMultipart();
bodyMulti.addBodyPart(bodyPart);
Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(System.getProperties());
MimeMessage body = new MimeMessage(session);
body.setFrom(new InternetAddress(frAddress));
body.setRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(
toAddress));
body.setSentDate(new Date());
body.setSubject("Encrypted Mail");
body.setContent(bodyMulti,bodyMulti.getContentType());
body.saveChanges();
/* Create the SMIMESignedGenerator */
SMIMECapabilityVector capabilities = new SMIMECapabilityVector();
capabilities.addCapability(SMIMECapability.dES_EDE3_CBC);
capabilities.addCapability(SMIMECapability.rC2_CBC, 128);
capabilities.addCapability(SMIMECapability.dES_CBC);
ASN1EncodableVector attributes = new ASN1EncodableVector();
attributes.add(new SMIMEEncryptionKeyPreferenceAttribute(
new IssuerAndSerialNumber(
new X509Name(((X509Certificate)chain[0])
.getIssuerDN().getName()),
((X509Certificate)chain[0]).getSerialNumber())));
attributes.add(new SMIMECapabilitiesAttribute(capabilities));
SMIMESignedGenerator signer = new SMIMESignedGenerator();
signer .addSigner(privateKey, (X509Certificate)chain[0],
"DSA".equals(privateKey.getAlgorithm()) ?
SMIMESignedGenerator.DIGEST_SHA1 : SMIMESignedGenerator.DIGEST_MD5,
new AttributeTable(attributes), null);
/* Add the list of certs to the generator */
List certList = new ArrayList();
certList.add(chain[0]);
CertStore certs = CertStore.getInstance("Collection",
new CollectionCertStoreParameters(certList), "BC");
signer.addCertificatesAndCRLs(certs);
/* Sign the message and copy all headers from original message */
MimeMultipart multiPart = signer.generate(body, "BC");
MimeMessage signedMessage = new MimeMessage(session);
Enumeration headers = body.getAllHeaderLines();
while (headers.hasMoreElements()) {
signedMessage.addHeaderLine((String)headers.nextElement());
}
signedMessage.setContent(multiPart);
signedMessage.saveChanges();
/* Create the encrypter and encrypt the message */
SMIMEEnvelopedGenerator encrypter = new SMIMEEnvelopedGenerator();
encrypter.addKeyTransRecipient((X509Certificate)chain[0]);
encrypter.addKeyTransRecipient(rcptCert);
MimeBodyPart encryptedPart = encrypter.generate(signedMessage,
SMIMEEnvelopedGenerator.RC2_CBC, 128, "BC");
ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
encryptedPart.writeTo(out);
/* Create a new MimeMessage for the encrypted and signed content */
Properties props = new Properties();
Session smtpSession = Session.getInstance(props, null);
MimeMessage smtpMessage = new MimeMessage(smtpSession,
new ByteArrayInputStream(out.toByteArray()));
smtpMessage.saveChanges();
/* Set all original MIME headers in the encrypted message */
headers = body.getAllHeaderLines();
while (headers.hasMoreElements()) {
String headerLine = (String)headers.nextElement();
/* Do not override content-* headers from the original message */
if (!Strings.toLowerCase(headerLine).startsWith("content-")) {
smtpMessage.addHeaderLine(headerLine);
}
}
smtpMessage.writeTo(new FileOutputStream("Encrypted.eml"));
}
catch (SMIMEException ex)
{
ex.getUnderlyingException().printStackTrace(System.err);
ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
}