Safe and Secure Mobile Banking
Mobile banking with a mobile device has never been safer or more secure; however, there are a number of ways you can make your devices and your sensitive information absolutely impervious to security breaches. Here’s what you need to know.
Being mindful of keeping your electronic banking transactions secure is never a bad idea. Fortunately, banks understand the importance of creating a safe online environment for conducting mobile banking and take every step to protect your personal information and banking data. The first line of defense is your phone itself.
Your Phone Is Directly Connected
Your bank will link your accounts directly to your smart phone or mobile device, meaning your sensitive information and accounts cannot be accessed by others unless they also have a smart phone or device linked to your designated accounts. In other words, you have control over which devices are allowed to use mobile banking to access to your accounts.
Enhance Security with Multiple Passwords
Accessing online banking via your smart phone or any other mobile device requires a password. Anyone who doesn’t have the password cannot gain access to your accounts, so your mobile banking is well protected from unauthorized use.
As an added step it is worth taking advantage of the ability to “lock” your phone or mobile device. Password protecting access to your hardware is a great additional security measure that can provide peace of mind should your phone be lost or stolen.
Keeping Your Information Private
Today many of us keep personal information on our smart phones. For business owners this can be a particular concern, as you may have payroll information, photos, invoices and more stored on your phone.
While your bank makes use of the powerful features of a smart phone, such as providing remote deposit of checks via the camera function, the information stored in your phone is not accessed by the bank. In other words mobile banking provides the benefit of added convenience without compromising your privacy.
Data Security
Banks understand that banking transactions involve important and confidential financial information, and as such encrypt your data to make sure that unauthorized persons are not able to intercept your data. Making use of this encrypted and protected internet and mobile banking technology helps keep your most sensitive information hidden from prying eyes.
As an added benefit, you can opt in to receiving notifications of any activity in your accounts. This allows notifications to come straight to your phone via secure messaging in the event of expected or unexpected account activity.
How to Get Started with Mobile Banking
Enabling your smart phone or mobile device to access banking information online is easier and safer than ever. You can get started by registering for online banking and adding any smart phones that are intended to access accounts online.
If you have multiple individuals needing to conduct mobile and online banking you are able to grant each individualized permission levels, meaning that you can restrict users from access levels that go beyond “view only”.
A Checklist for Enhancing Your Mobile Banking Security
Taking a few straightforward steps today can dramatically increase your mobile banking security tomorrow. The convenience of mobile banking has caused it to be embraced by an ever larger number of businesses, allowing them to run their business in a more efficient - and travel friendly - way. Consider this checklist when getting started with banking on your smart phone.
- Don’t lose track of where your phone is. Always keep it on your person or in a secure place that only you have access to.
- Passwords and PIN protection is only as effective as how secret this information is kept. Your phone and any other devices used to access banking information should not contain or be stored near password or PIN information.
- The strongest passwords make use of numbers and symbols in addition to letters.
- Do not share your authorized phone, password, or PIN information with anyone, even trusted family and friends.
To enhance overall digital protection for your business make sure everyone on your team understands how to use their smart phones safely and securely.