Cybercriminals enjoy a new, rich playground in online banking. Two-thirds of Australians use banking apps to manage their finances, overtaking internet banking last year as the most popular method for the first time.

However, online banking scams have become one of the most common attacks reported by Australians over the past few years. Unfortunately, these attacks have a clear target – your life savings.

Targeting Their Victims

Various tactics are employed by criminals to target banking app users.

These can include calling and emailing targets pretending to be their bank (in attempts to have them transfer money) or sending people spam emails that encourage them to download bogus versions of apps or click on malicious links to steal their login information.

This spyware can monitor your keystrokes if you have spyware on your phone (resulting from downloading a compromised app or clicking on a malicious link). This means that when you enter your banking login details on the app, you’re essentially passing them your information directly.

How Do We Protect Ourselves? 

Financial institutions have long been associated with airtight security measures to protect people’s most valuable resources from physical and virtual threats.

The recent wave of cybercrime has ushered in a raft of new security regulations and protections for financial institutions.

As of this year, banks are considered operators of critical infrastructure, which means the government intervenes with support in a cyber attack and is subject to tighter security obligations, including mandatory cyber reporting and the development of risk management programs.

Currently, banking applications mostly apply security measures to support their back-end infrastructure, which leaves the environments in which the apps operate open to attack.

In this case, it is best to ensure that you have appropriate security software installed on your phone to detect and prevent spyware and malicious intentions from invading your device.

Considering that most Australians carry their banks around in their bags and pockets, financial institutions must adapt and protect their customers at all times – or we will continue suffering the consequences.