As retail banks restructure to align with the uptake in mobile banking, the issue of mobile application security and malware attack prevention now needs to be brought to the fore to protect consumers.
According to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), digital banking transactions are now
Sharp shift to mobile banking means malware prevention needs to become a key consideration fast
worth almost £1 billion a day, with UK mobile and internet banking transactions now being the region of 40 million a week. With the mainstream adoption of online and mobile banking in the UK, the country has over the last few years become a prime target for online fraudsters who see it as an easy target to profit from malware attacks.
“When online banking first become a possibility, we saw online fraudsters using PC Trojan attacks to access customer information and attempt to monetise from this. Now these fraudsters, who are diligently monitoring the industry landscape, are turning their attention to the next ‘weak link’ and targeting mobile banking applications with increased malware attacks,” explains Jan Søgaard, CEO of Promon.
“While the Man-in-the-Browser (MiTB) attack is familiar territory that is largely understood, Man-in-the-App (MiTA) is a newer threat that needs to be combatted, and this needs to be a key consideration as more transactions are take place through mobile banking applications.”
“It’s worryingly inexpensive and easy for hackers to compromise mobile banking applications to steal customer data. This, combined with the fact that banking applications are highly vulnerable to attacks means that preventing attacks, rather than attempting to fix the aftermath, needs to become a key priority moving forward to ensure that consumers are protected. With the number of mobile banking transactions expected to increase, this is an issue that organisations can no longer afford to ignore,” Søgaard concludes.
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