Oz banks urged to up security education

The National Australia Bank (NAB) has claimed the banking sector is not doing enough to educate customers on the security shortfalls of Internet and mobile transactions, reports ZDNet.

It has also begun to investigate how to evaluate the level of security for each customer to try to rectify the issue on a case-by-case basis.

Speaking at the Banking Technology Summit 2011, NAB's head of fraud operations and investigations Grant Baxter said the banking sector was failing when it came to informing its customers of the dangers associated with conducting online transactions, particularly when using smartphones.

The CIO reveals that according to Baxter, the big four banks - NAB, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac and ANZ - are yet to do an effective job of talking to customers about smartphone fraud.

“I had a look at the big four banks Web sites and then looked at the Teachers' Credit Union of Australia. The most accurate and up-to-date information around the exposures customers face on smartphones was on the Teachers' Credit Union site.

“We really need to lift our game because we rely on the Australian Federal Police and media programmes such as Today Tonight to educate [consumers].”

A Westpac spokesperson said that the bank did not agree with Baxter's assessment that its Web site lacked information on smartphone security.

“Mobile banking security is paramount at Westpac and our mobile banking provides the same high level of security as online banking and business online banking,” she said.

A CBA spokesperson said the bank had not experienced “anywhere near” the 300% increase in fraudulent iPhone transactions experienced by the NAB, writes ComputerWorld.

“Commonwealth Bank has state-of-the-art prevention and detection controls at the back-end,” he said.