Without a doubt, managing money in the modern days of mobile banking became significantly easier than it once was back in the day. However, the innovation brought many disadvantages, like hackers and other security issues that users must be aware of.
Today, “Bank Robberies” are not resemblant to the Western movie’s great heists of the ’70s. Instead, all a criminal needs is a little hacking expertise and a compromised smartphone in order to access a victim’s bank account.
And users are aware of the dangers of mobile banking.
According to the United States Federal Reserve survey about Consumers and Mobile Financial Services published in 2015, Consumers see mobile banking as the main cause of concern regarding their mobile phone security.
The study also went into detail about the biggest security issues consumers see regarding mobile banking.
1 – Data Interception
According to the report, 22% of all mobile banking users worry that their personal data is going to be intercepted.
Hackers can intercept a person’s data, like a bank account or even a credit card number, by infecting the machine with malicious software that captures personal information and sends them across the internet.
2 – Phone Hacking
One of the greatest fears about having a phone invaded by a hacker is the fact that criminals can access its bank apps and liquidate the person’s banking account.
Today, there are several mobile bank app hacks that can infect your phone.
Criminals will use methods like infecting a phone with a virus or malware that steals a person’s information, password breaking, phishing scams in order to steal someone’s credentials, Wi-Fi communication interception, and so on.
3 – Losing or Having A Phone Stolen
Another issue that could compromise online bank accounts is if a person happens to lose possession of their phone.
If a criminal acquires your phone, there is a good chance that they will be able to go through your banking apps.
Similar to having a social media account hacked, if a phone gets invaded, criminals will get access to every data that this phone contains.
4 – Someone Going Through a Phone Without Permission
Similar to losing or having a phone stolen, 4% of mobile users’ greatest fear is having someone going through their phone without permission.
That is why it’s extremely important to always keep a strong password on your smartphone lock screen.
It might sound like a given, but 28% of all smartphone users do not use any lock screen password at all.
If an unlocked phone would find itself in the hands of a criminal, he would easily gain access to the victim’s personal information, pictures, social media passwords, credit card, and bank information.
5 – Companies Misusing Personal Information
2% of people worry that companies will misuse their personal information in order to profit.
Nowadays, big tech is constantly monitoring every move a person takes online.
Be it on social media, search engines like Google, or browser cookie tracking, every person that goes online leaves a digital footprint capable of shaping that person’s behavior, preferences, and even where exactly they go in their day-to-day lives.
Over the past few years, we saw several database leaks where millions of customers had their private information leaked online.
For instance, in May of 2019, the First American Financial Corp suffered a huge data breach where 885 million credit card applications were leaked online.
Acquiring a person’s sensitive information from financial institutes can allow criminals to perform cyber crimes, identity theft, ransomware attacks, and malware injections.
6 – Malware or Viruses Being Installed on a Phone
A wide range of viruses can infect phones. And it doesn’t matter if it’s smartphones utilizing digital banks of Canada, China, or Canada.
Viruses on personal devices may erase your data, run up your phone bill, try to make illicit purchases, or collect sensitive information for nefarious ends like identity theft or blackmail.
Viruses can also present several security issues in mobile banking that can affect the safety of the victim’s bank account.
Nowadays, viruses are becoming more modern, that is why it is important to also have a good firewall protector and antivirus software on all devices.
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