Online Banking, its been in my thoughts for awhile now

How Secure are you from Online Threats?

This article is not that old, and it has been crossing my mind in the past few days while I’ve been having some phuysical issues going on in my life. While I’m feeling better, I know that other people may not be feeling that great, and we all are pushing through this difficult time in a very crazy year.

One of the things that have not taken a break is the relentless offerings of online stores when you search for specific items like online banking apps. This is not just a problem searching for online banking apps however, but the article I’m talking about does talk about the continued threats out there in relation to the banking apps.

The article comes to us by Phishlabs, the experts in Phishing who have been around a long time now, and we’ve published and talked about many of their articles as of late.

The article is entitled FBI Warns of Growing Mobile Banking App Threats and while it is not that old, it does bring up the reminder that we need to always pass along to new readers coming to the blog.

One big thing you can do to stay away from the bad online banking apps is to search for your specific bank app, or ask your branch to send you a link to the app that corresponds to your operating system. For example, if I were new to the Iphone today and I was a Chase Bank customer, I may ask my Chase Bank rep to have a link sent to my email to the app for the Iphone. I could search Chase Bank in the app store, but there may be other apps that have Chase Bank in their name, and if I were new, I wouldn’t know which app to get. This is because the app may not be developed by Chase Bank, it may be developed by someone who has access to the interface to make it work, but may not work at the bank and its many branches themselves.

Sometimes, when people tell me about an app, I will ask for a link, so I make sure I get the right one. When searching for something to replace the older app for tracking parcels, I carefully looked at each particular item that caught my attention to determine if it would meet my needs. I read the descriptions to determine what it was. Now, you can say: “These apps that claim to be Chase Bank (or enter bank name here) say that it connects to your account and does bank transfers, bill payments, account balance, and the like.”

Sure, you’ve got a case, but I try to look at whether it has the name of the bank if it was a banking app, or a developer name that would be a typical name. of a person. Looking at reviews helps, but I wouldn’t necessarily rely on reviews, as some people do write negative reviews and trash the company or people behind it. They can be a sign that you’ve stumbled on a bad app however, so I would use this as a guide to help you, not just the only thing out there.

There are two types of app-based threats to be cautious of, the first being banking trojans disguised as common apps such as games or tools. These mobile
banking trojans are designed to lay dormant until the user’s legitimate banking app is launched. At that point, these trojans overlay the real banking
app with a fake login screen that steals credentials. The trojan transfers the user to the legitimate banking app after the username and password have
been entered so that they are not alerted to the scam
 
The second type of mobile banking threat consists of apps that impersonate real financial institutions. These fraudulent applications are widely available
in official and unofficial app stores, with the FBI’s report noting 65,000 have been detected in 2018 alone. If downloaded, these apps act as a legitimate
login page only to steal the user’s credentials and obtain security codes texted to the mobile device. 

This is why I say that we should utalize everything we have which includes the app descriptions, possible reviews, and even who is developing the app. Maybe the banking apps have their name on it instead of the developer themselves. For example, if I were using Chase Bank, I’d look to see if Chase Bank is named as the developer. The official apps are also listed on the web site of the banking institution, so look there to see if there is a link to it on the web site.

Have you been bitten by this problem, and how did you deal with it? Let’s discuss this and let’s see what strategies you use! I look forward in hearing from you. Remember, if 2018 only had 65,000 apps, what did 2019 have? It could be much higher than these numbers, and this year may be higher with the stay at home orders and the use of online banking because branches have limited hours. Don’t be fooled!

I’m going to leave you with one paragraph near the end of the article.

According to the FBI, more than 75% of Americans used mobile banking apps in some form in 2019. With new factors such as the pandemic moving the population
to socially distance rather than interact physically with their financial institutions, that number will only rise. Enterprises need to be proactive in
their efforts to monitor for these threats and have procedures in place to efficiently identify and action those that are malicious.