6 Ways to Secure Your Mobile Banking App

banking app
lloyds banking app screenshot
With smartphones, using banking services has never been easier. You can manage your savings account on the bed in the middle of the night. While mobile banking is easy, convenience always elevates security risks. Someone can steal or hack your smartphone. Although hackers don’t physically interact with your smartphone, they may scan data traffic between your smartphone and bank’s server.

Here are things to do to secure your Mobile Banking App

Enable two-factor authentication

It’s a good thing if your bank requires two-factor authentication to log into your app. Other than typing the password, you may also be required to do fingerprint scan. So, if a hacker gets your password, he can’t proceed due to the lack of biometric authentication. You will also be notified if someone is attempting to log into your account from a different device.

Avoid unknown emails

Many people are vulnerable to phishing emails, because they can’t tell the difference between genuine and fake emails. Scammers can easily duplicate email templates used by your bank. If you click the link in a phishing email, you will be brought to a website that looks exactly identical to your bank’s website. If you receive an email from your bank, you shouldn’t open it immediately. Check its email address and make sure that it’s genuine.

Don’t log in automatically

It’s very convenient if you can immediately use the banking app when you tap it. If the banking app has an automatic login feature, you shouldn’t use it. If your smartphone is lost or stolen, someone may have direct access to your banking account. This means, you may potentially lose a lot of money, because the person may easily transfer fund or make purchases. Again, be sure to use two-factor authentication, so it’s very difficult for people to access your app, even if your phone is stolen.

Change passwords frequently

It may feel irritating to continue changing your passwords all the time. Some apps may even require you incorporate numbers and special characters into your passwords, which make them harder to remember. A good way to do this is to create a seemingly complicated password with different characters and symbols, but it should follow a unique pattern that you can easily remember.

Avoid public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi hotspots, especially the free ones, are very convenient, but they are disadvantageous as well. Most of the time, they run slow and worse, they are completely unsafe. It’s a nightmare scenario, if you log into your banking account through these free hotspots. An evil admin can easily watch traffic and he may harvest any password that goes through the system. Your best bet is to use standard cellular Internet, through 4G LTE or 5G.

Update your smartphone

Depending on your Internet connection and smartphone hardware, it may take a few minutes or a few hours to complete an update process. If your smartphone is behind in terms update, it may have more than a few security holes that must be patched urgently. Make sure that your smartphone gets the latest update to prevent malware infection and security breaches.