Tips to Strengthen the Security of Mobile Banking Apps

With the advancement of technology, the world is moving towards the cashless economy system. The internet has facilitated people with e-banking facilities. The recent statistics reveal the fact that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of users opting for internet banking.

According to a research, it was found that around 35% of the mobile phones remained unencrypted. In the same survey, it was observed that about 43% of the users do not use passwords, PIN or lock pattern to lock their mobile devices.

Now this is a great security concern because most of the people have sensitive data and private information stored in their devices. As the data of secured banking information is getting transmitted on daily basis, the threat of security breach becomes evident.

However, we have the cyber security threat looming on the other hand. A number of cases have been reported in the past regarding hacking of debit or credit card and secretly transferring money in one’s account. But despite some of the drawbacks, internet banking has become the order of the day as it has simplified various tasks. It is one of the most convenient ways to receive or transfer money, pay online bills, check your account balance, obtain speedy loans from bank and so on.

However, if you are developing a mobile app for banking facilities, then you can certainly win the trust vote and confidence of your audiences by implementing the following measures.

1. The Addition of Multi-Factor Authentication Procedure
You are aware that today the internet based information are very sensitive and technology has gone to the next higher level. The hackers have become adequately smart to break the jail and get the secret info by hacking and phishing methods. Therefore, you need to be smarter than them to stop such nuisances.

Only providing a password protection layer is not going to sort out your problem. So, it becomes vital to verify the customer and you have some advanced tools such as iris detection, biometric etc to help in this effort. The multi-factor authentication becomes more important these days whatever banking activity you are doing whether it is opening a fresh account or any financial transaction. This is known as the KYC (Know Your Customer) process by the banks and it has become a mandatory procedure. The app should be strong to check the documents of the customer uploaded by him.

2. Use of NFC-embedded SIM cards is more secure
Now what is a NFC-embedded SIM card and why is it considered to be safe and secure. Well, to answer this question is a SIM which provides a safe environment to the mobile users while they are downloading their sensitive information such as from credit or debit cards and they can store it in Near Field Communication (NFC) SIM card. However, you cannot compel the customers to use this SIM; you can only request or suggest them, the choice is theirs.

This will be beneficial for the users on two fronts. They can easily secure their confidential data and secondly they don’t have to carry their cards everywhere especially while traveling.

3. Abiding Strictly to Banking Regulatory Rules
One of the best methods to build an efficient trustworthy and highly secured mobile banking app is strictly abiding to the regulatory compliance. It has to be compulsorily followed to avoid any penalty or heavy fines. Often we have seen several instances where the financial institutions have been penalized because of breaching the regulations. With the passage of time, these regulations are becoming more rigid and so the organizations are adopting a sounder tactics such as the KYC to follow the regulations.

Now if you have gone through a banking app, most of them have the facility of KYC.

4. Offering Alerts Related to Transactions
Today most of the banks provide their customers with an alert message whenever there is any transaction or withdrawal of money from their account. The message reads that a certain amount has been withdrawn from your account. If it wasn’t you then please contact the branch immediately. This issues an alert to the customer and if senses anything foul, then he can report it instantly at the branch.

Similarly, if the transaction was done via debit or credit card, then also they receive a SMS or an email. This notification lets the customer know whether his secret account details have been leaked and take immediate action thereupon.

5. Use of Advanced Software to detect Suspicious Activities
Today we are all blessed to have a highly advance software which has the ability to identify the login location and suspicious banking online activity if anyone indulged in. The banking app would ensign this abnormal behaviour for further investigation. The bank will immediately send an email, SMS or call the customer to inform him about this unethical practice.

6. Ensure Using Secured Web Access
When you are logging in into your account through a mobile app, please ensure it contains the HTTPS, which is a sign of secured web access. This will make sure that your information remains protected against all the vulnerable threats and save from any fraud deals.

7. End-to-end Encryption
End-to-end Encryption is yet another significant step that is strengthening the security knots. It offers highly protected security level and ensures that data is safe and sound. It takes an extra mile by undertaking the security audits and penetration tests etc so that the information remains intact.

Conclusion
With every convenience comes a set of challenges as well. This is quite evident in the case of internet banking and mobile applications. The apps, no doubt have made each and every task look quite simple and allowed people to adopt cashless economy.

On the other hand, there is an apprehension always looming large regarding the risk factors and hacking of confidential details. But it can be combated by developing a highly secured application and banking system and the vigilance of the customers.