Last night, I posted about the efficiency in using internet mobile banking for us seafarers especially in managing our finances. I also discussed how we can also bypass the “Pre, dumating na ba ang allotment natin” conversation every payday or send our wives/ parents to a long line in an ATM machine only to find out that the allotment is not delivered yet. You may see the complete post here.
Now, before we dive directly into mobile banking, let’s double check first the online security features of the bank. There are simple ways to do this and it doesn’t take a genius to determine it.
Most of the banks invests a lot of money in making their site impregnable to hackers. But to be very sure and learn how they employ some of these measures, let us see some of it.
Upon enrolling your account in any mobile banking, you will be redirected to their website. On this part, you can start checking their security. Simply inspect their address bar and you will see a configuration like this:
Notice that on their URL, you can see a green Padlock, green Extended Validation (EV) Certificates (name of their website), and the letters https. These symbols mean that the site is encrypted and all the data like your account number, passwords, names, etc., is safe and are only readable to the owner of that website. Actually, the green Padlock and the letters https is enough but to give a more unique authenticity to the website, an Extended Validation (EV) Certificates (name of their website) is added. This EV certificate costs a lot so phishing sites will have a second thoughts using that method. It’s also a good practice to check the address of any website before proceeding especially if it involves logging in important information.
After going through that, you can contact their customer support thru emails or telephone and ask your concerns to them. They are more than interested in helping you remove those doubts. You can also check Google and type random searches regarding online security breaches of the bank if there are any. A news at this level could easily be found online including the damages and protective measures the bank has taken since then.
Finally, see the mobile app reviews and ratings on Google Playstore or iOS Appstore. There you will find out how great or poor their app could be. The reviews will tell you if the app is buggy or not. Read them well and see if there are any security flaws experienced by the users.
After reading this post, are you going to stay with the traditional banking that you’ve known or are you confident in the new electronic banking system that rapidly changes the way people handle money?
May the winds be on your favor.
