5 Most Critical Mobile Banking App Security Issues – This Is How to Address Them

Mobile banking is the new normal with mobile banking apps being one of the most trusted types of apps to be used by people of all age groups.

Mobile banking is nearly perfect with its series of security measures that ensure the customers are always safe.

However, there are a few issues with baking app security and we are here to talk about that and help you understand how that can be dangerous. However, nothing is impossible and there are of course solutions.

We are also going to tell you the solution to this because the mobile banking industry is the future of banking.

So, let us start this blog by understanding why the mobile app banking industry is so significant and even what is the size of this industry.

How Big Is the Mobile Banking Industry?

The mobile banking industry is astronomical and it is one of the fastest-growing and largest industries and subsets of the banking industry.

The mobile banking industry is expected to reach $8.3 billion by the end of 2032 with a compound annual growth rate of almost 20% between the years 2024 and 2032.

The interesting thing about this is that almost all of it is due to mobile banking apps because mobile banking apps share the majority of activity when it comes to mobile banking.

In order to find out the impact of mobile banking through mobile apps, we need to look at markets and what better market to look at than the American banking market which is undoubtedly the biggest banking and financial market in the world.

Nearly 45% of all consumers prefer using mobile apps on their smartphones and tablets rather than online banking. The number can seem low but you must consider the fact that when we say all consumers, that includes everyone from people over the age of 50 and 60 to people under the age of 30.

The number of mobile app users is only going to increase with time and there is also a difference between mobile app banking usage and different generations.

If you look at the stats then you are going to find a correlation between age and banking preference with Gen X, Gen Z and the millennials exclusively preparing mobile apps for banking over online banking(web).

With the help of this, we can predict that the mobile app banking industry is only going to increase in size as new generations are only going to access their banking profiles through mobile apps.

The Reason Why Mobile Banking App Use Is Not 100%

There is a problem with these numbers because if you notice the numbers mentioned above then you are going to see that a lot of people do not still use mobile banking apps.

It is not because these apps are not accessible because mobile banking apps are very convenient. The real issue is that people who do not use mobile banking apps do not really trust mobile banking apps.

As you can see, people do not like to use mobile apps for banking purposes simply because of one and only thing. It is not because banking apps are difficult to use or it is not because they are very performance-intensive on older mobiles.

It is just because they are not secure enough. It does not take an app security expert to tell you that mobile app security is not perfect.

In spite of financial institutions providing mobile banking services, there is still a large majority of people who do not use mobile banking apps and it is because of security reasons.

5 Critical Mobile Banking App Security Issues

Mobile Banking Trojans

Trojans had a kind of malware that can infect your banking apps and this usually happens when users do not operate their phone with caution.

This can sometimes happen when users download the app from unofficial sources and this can also happen with genuine banking apps.

If your genuine banking app that has been downloaded from an official source is infected with a Trojan then you do not really have much to do.

You can sign out of the app immediately and uninstall the app if you detect malicious behaviour on the app.

You can also try mobile anti-viruses but they do not really work that well and the only thing you can do to prevent Trojan attacks successfully is to download the app from a trusted source.

Sometimes, banking apps also do not work if the developer options are on and you must respect that as well.

Fake Banking Apps

One of the biggest issues in the world of mobile banking apps is the issue of fake banking apps and this is something that gets millions of people scammed every year.

The thing with banking apps is that banks do not really promote them as much as they should and this leads to one issue.

Banking customers and usually older people fall into the trap of downloading fake banking apps that look identical to real banking apps.

This usually happens because there is no way for authentication when it comes to downloading a fake banking app.

This leads people to users providing their banking information into the fake banking app and the scam is complete as the malicious people can now steal money directly from the bank accounts of customers.

However, you do not have to get worried about this because there are a few ways you can prevent downloading a fake banking app.

Developer Name

The first dead giveaway that the banking app you are trying to download is fake is going to be the development name of the app.

It is very difficult to get your name registered on mobile app platforms with the name of a bank if you are not associated with the bank.

Mobile app platforms take security and identity very seriously and that is why if you notice that the development name is not the name of the bank then you should not download that app.

Online Reviews

The second thing you must look out for is the reviews of the app on the mobile app download platform because if someone has already downloaded the app and has been scammed then they are probably going to write about it.

If you find out anything related to the app not being real then you should stay away from that banking app and only do online banking with the help of any trusted web browser.

Asking The Bank

If you want to be absolutely sure about the authenticity of the banking app then you should visit your bank’s local branch and directly ask the bank manager about it.

This will remove any shadow of doubt about the authenticity of the app as your banker is going to look at the app and tell you if it is real or fake.

This is also a very good practice for helping other people not get scammed because if the bank manager finds out about a fake app, they can take necessary steps on behalf of the bank to ban that app.

App Description

One of the other ways to spot a fake app is to read the app description because fake banking apps do not really have detailed descriptions.

They might have spelling mistakes or mistakes about the procedure of the banking app or even other errors in the description.

This is not the best way to find out a fake app but it's worth a shot.

App Permissions

And finally, the best way to find out if the app is real or fake is to check out the permissions the app asks for.

If the app is asking for all permissions with permissions such as camera permissions, microphone permissions and other permissions that a banking app does not need then that should raise alarm bells.

Code Tampering

Code tampering is when malicious actors get hold of the app's binary code and utilises it to create copies of that code.

If that is done then the attacker can tamper with API calls and execute code that is designed to steal user data.

This is usually done and a fake app is created that resembles the real app.

The attacker can also utilise the app and intercept communication between the app and the banking website and steal information.

While app platforms are very serious about this issue and they even flag anything out of the ordinary but this is a responsibility of the developers.

This is an area that should be looked at by banks and made known to the banking application developers who can then create encryption protocols that are impossible to penetrate.

If you do not take care of this then it is just going to mean the banking customers will stay sitting ducks for attackers to exploit.

With a high-level case as code tempering, there is not really much banking app users can do other than move their business to a bank that cares about their safety and security.

While it is true that banks invest millions of dollars into ensuring the safety of their apps but you can never get too sure unless you run regular tests of that app.

That is why banks should encourage the developers to carry on regular daily tests in order to test the vulnerability of the app.

Guidelines Compliance Failure

Modern mobile app platforms are very secure and they take security very seriously but there it is banking apps or rather any other kind of apps.

That is why app developers need to always be compliant with the different guidelines that they mentioned on the app platforms.

These guidelines include the implementation of proper authentication protocols and also app integrity protocols which help in checking server requests.

In addition to that, app publishing platforms also provide a lot of guidelines regarding the storage of app data and this is just provided as a type of suggestion-based guidelines.

The only way to be absolutely sure that you are banking app is secure is to follow all these guidelines and much more.

As app developers, you must do everything to protect the user data when it comes to banking apps and follow the proper encryption protocols and also maintain code obfuscation.

In addition to that, you must also utilise secure communication and only utilise trusted libraries and SDKs.

You can also add additional layers of authentication in the form of biometric authentication and this is only going to improve the app security.

Insecure Authentication

As a banking app developer, you can choose between a dozen app authentication protocols that users can use.

This is because one of the critical mobile banking app security issues that can arise is improper authentication and users can have their banking apps hacked into.

In order to prevent this, you should not just trust the single password-based authentication which is outdated and insecure.

You should provide the option for multiple kinds of authentication to the user and the first kind of authentication you should allow the user to provide is biometric authentication because it is very hard to replicate without the presence of the user.

In addition to that, you must also utilise Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) as it is also very secure and can be utilised easily.

We do not suggest you utilise OAuth/OpenID Connect because it is traditionally not done with banking apps.

If you want then you can provide pin and pattern-based authentication for convenience purposes but we would suggest you not to provide the option for a pin-based authentication simply because it is not very secure.

You can also choose OTP based authentication but it is still not secure because of SIM card cloning attacks.

We hope this blog has been helpful for you to understand five of the most critical banking app security issues.

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We are Think To Share IT Solutions and we are the fastest-growing and most popular mobile app development company and we would love to create the most secure mobile banking app for you along with all the authentication protocols and safety protocols and encryption protocols necessary.

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