South African consumers must approach mobile banking apps with awareness and caution, says Martin Walshaw, senior engineer at F5 Networks.
World Wide Worx's Mobility 2014 survey, conducted with 1 200 South Africans in all age groups and across all urban and rural areas, found cellphone banking use increased from 28% to 37% in 2013. App-based banking increased to 9% in 2013, from 1% in 2012.
While app-based banking offers much convenience, mobile banking apps are not immune to security risks, warns Walshaw.
Pankaj Gupta, Amtel CEO, says banking apps are most vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, whereby the attacker intercepts communication between the app and the bank by pretending to be each in turn. "Often the app cannot decipher whether the information is coming from the correct server," Gupta says.
Users should consider whether the security risks are worth the added convenience, notes Walshaw.
It is difficult for an end-user with little specialised security knowledge to establish their app's security based on its features, says Gupta. But "there's a big community out there, testing apps and making [faults] public".
Walshaw suggests users take the time to trawl through mobile banking app reviews on their app store before downloading the app, as these can offer information about the app's faults and flaws.
Users must be offered the same level of security regardless of their phone's make or model, Walshaw says.
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