An intersting thread.
Periodically I think about bank apps but to be honest for us there doesn't appear to be a need so I've never bothered. I've taken a look at the security aspects and they seem to be reasonably secure. However, every company says that and yet problems still occur and they trot out the same old statement after the event ' we take your privacy and security very seriously'
We do a lot of online transactions including banking but Madam V and I prefer to use PCs with a full size keyboard on which she at least can hunt and peck. They're also loaded with many safety features.
Too often on my 8" tablet or 6" phone I will touch the wrong thing and I really don't want to give my life savings to the Donkey Sanctuary or whatever instead of who it should be going to. I see today someone inadvertantly put up for sale an NFT for $3000 instead of $300,000 and it got snapped up quickly and resold for much more.
More often or not people are usually the weakest link in the chain of transaction. Poor password management and memorable data that's also posted on anti-social networks.....maiden name, mothers maiden name, dogs name, school, car etc.
I think this carelessness sometimes extends to what people do in public places, like using unsecure public wifi. But consider also the transactions some may be doing in public with perhaps on lookers. For example sitting in a coffee shop doing on-line banking on the phone on the table. Security services and villains both look for opportunities to gather unlocked phones. So, you unlock your phone, put it on the table to take a quick sip of whatever beverage you have, and someone walks past and steals your phone.... in an unlocked state.
There are things you can do to lock it remotely but these take time. Hopefully banking apps have multiple layers of security so that even if the app is open money transfers need further checks but then a lot of data about you could be gathered from your un-locked phone which would help perpertrate identify theft.
On line banking on our pcs requires the use of our bank card and reader and in some cases additional 2FA. So more than one piece of hardware is involved. Other vendors - Amazon for example - have 2FA - but imagine that someone had obtained your phone and got into your Amazon account. The 2FA code would be texted to the same phone and therefore provide no additional security.
Life is always going to be a risk, we just have to be aware of the circumstances and provide mitigation strategies where possible.
A final word about Mobile Banking. We have the ultimate in this. Once a week the Bank of Scotland Bank van comes around our community. I can't help wondering how much longer this will go on. We already hear about more bank closures in our nearest town.
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