Mobile Banking Security - Aug 21

Solution protects smartphones from mobile banking fraud
"Easy Solutions released Detect Safe Browsing (DSB) version 4.0, allowing financial institutions to provide an additional layer of fraud prevention to end users by protecting against malware and other sophisticated threats such as, pharming, man-in-the-middle and man-in-the browser attacks. With DSB 4.0, Easy Solutions now extends this support to the two most popular mobile platforms: Android and iOS, ensuring that over 90% of mobile users can securely access their mobile banking accounts."

Surge in Mobile Banking Creates a Security Gap That's a 'Wild West' for Fraudsters
"Think about it. Do you know anyone who writes checks anymore? Online banking has become ubiquitous as more people turn to their smartphones to carry out daily tasks. Still, while it may be more efficient, using your phone to make financial transactions could raise security risks. Portland, Ore.-based online fraud detection company iovation tracked online financial transactions across 1.5 billion devices in July and found that 20 percent were done through a mobile device or tablet. That's an increase over the 18 percent of online financial transactions done on a mobile device between January and July of this year, and 11 percent last year, according to a statement the company released today."

Why Online Banking Is Safer on a Mobile Phone
"A few years ago, security experts thought you'd be crazy to access an online bank account from a mobile phone. Mobile Web browsers hid URLs, making it easy for cybercriminals to impersonate banking sites. The Wireless Application Protocol mobile-Web standard offered limited security. Even after the introduction of smartphones, banks' stand-alone apps were often poorly designed. "We've seen a few examples where it became clear the mobile finance apps didn't quite receive the same level of security scrutiny as their traditional counterparts," Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, stated in a TechNewsDaily article as recently as May 2012."

Squashing the Bugs in Mobile Banking
"As mobile banking and commerce have taken off, so too have the number of bugs in wireless systems. Here's a look at how some industry leaders are exterminating them and what it means for banks."

IBM to Buy Trusteer for Mobile Security and Fraud Protection
"With rumors swirling the deal is in the US$ 1 billion range, this represents an enormous investment in cloud based security software, and specifically, in mobile, application, malware, counter fraud, financial crimes and advanced threat security. Trusteer apparently has the abiltiy to identify security threats that other systems tend to miss, according to an IBM statement, and seven of the top 10 US banks use its software to secure customer accounts. That Trusteer offers a Saas model for securiy delivery, it should be able to provide PC, desktop, smartphone and tablet security updates in as close to real time as possible."

FOR FINANCES, BANK ON YOUR SMARTPHONE
"Here’s something that surprised me: Experts are saying that banking on a smartphone is safer than banking on your PC. I know, right? It seems to go against all logic, but the pro-smartphone people have some very good points. People always know where their phone is. I know I have forgotten my iPhone at home or work twice since I bought my first one in 2007, and I have never left it behind at a store or restaurant. That’s typical. Ninety-one percent of Americans have their phone at arm’s length 24 hours a day, according to a Morgan Stanley study."