Despite the ease and convenience of banking online, there are definitely major concerns involving the security of these online transactions. Last year the American Banking Association conducted a survey showing that 62% of Americans prefer online Banking. Just the year before it was at 36%. This explosion in online banking has much to do with the digital revolution we are experiencing globally. However concerns remain for banks and customers now that this shift to banking online has left us as fish in open water, easily attacked from anyone with the knowledge to do so.
According to Joseph Menn of Reuters, just earlier this month, six major banks including Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, PNC, Wellsfargo, and US Bank fell victim to an intricate cyber attack believed to have originated from the Middle East. Catherine New of the Huffington Post states that "Even though the wave of attacks didn't impact customers' account security, it underscores the new world order that surrounds all-digital banking. Electronic and online banking is faster and more convenient, but the shift to a teller-less world has also ushered in 21st century problems like ongoing hacker attacks, zombie bank accounts, mass security breaches for credit cards and the lack of a real-live customer service representative to call for help."
According to a New York Times article from earlier this year, "Banks and their online customers also lost more than $2 billion in 2010 because of payment card scams, fraudulent wire transfers and other Internet swindles." Currently regulators are trying to encourage more security practices because the current systems based on cookies, passwords, or tokens, simply aren't strong enough. According to the same article, regulators are trying to push new measures to add layers to the sites that detect strange activity, but many banks are slow to action. These same regulations call for banks to limit individual customer loss to $500 to cover that amount in the case of a cyberattack. However, "businesses are not covered, and small companies are especially vulnerable because they move more cash around than individuals and cannot afford high-technology defenses."
In the following video clip from Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, James Boyd gives us some easy-to-understand tips to improve online security and privacy when banking online.
The concerns about malware specially designed to log your keystrokes to get your account information are laso very important to note. According Kim Zetter of Wired, the latest malware allows "cybercrooks" to do more than just steal from your bank accounts. According to a new report, it allows them to hide "evidence of a victim’s dwindling balance by rewriting online bank statements" so victims do not realize what has happened at all.
It's clear that this is what we can expect moving forward in a more digital and online world. This is the new reality. We must think ahead, before banking or sharing any of our personal information, to the fact that it cannot truly be safe. Malware, hackers, and cyber attacks can easily happen, and can compromise our banking accounts. The Internet isn't as safe as we'd like it to be. Bottom line: Convenient does not mean secure.