Mark Jones, of law firm Payne Hicks Beach, said: “We’re reliant on technology for more or less everything now so when it doesn’t work the consequences can be quite catastrophic.
“I suppose nothing is risk-free but customers need to understand the risks that online mobile banking presents. Identity theft, phishing, malware, unauthorised transactions, card details being accessed – there are lots of things that can happen.”
How to protect yourself
While customers cannot prevent a cloud server from malfunctioning or being hacked, they can protect their individual banking accounts.
Customers are advised to use biometrics to bolster security on their banking apps. Fingerprint identification and facial recognition software has been increasingly rolled out by providers in recent years.
Mr Stewart, of Check Point, said: “You absolutely should be making sure those things are enabled. I know it feels inconvenient having to do the extra step, but you should absolutely always do it. I’ve got it on every single app I use.”
Consumer group Which? last year found that receiving a one-time passcode by SMS to validate banking access was the least secure way to authenticate customers because criminals were increasingly intercepting such texts.
The consumer group instead awarded top marks to banks that asked customers to use a card-reader to confirm payments.
Mr Stewart also said customers should not save their card details on websites for future purchases.
“It seems great as you can buy things with just a click, but it’s not worth it,” he said. “Anything that exposes you, even in the slightest, you should try and avoid.
“I also wouldn’t encourage anyone to use a Wi-Fi network that they don’t know for banking.
“It’s also best practice when closing a banking app on your phone, to always log out rather than just swiping the app to close it. In some cases like NatWest, you’re automatically logged out when you leave the app, but with others it can still running in the background.
“Your phone should fundamentally be safe, but in this day and age, suspicion is absolutely the right approach. Suspicion is your friend.”
