The Nigerian banking sector, small and large businesses have been urged to take precautionary steps in ensuring the safety of online transactions.
Michael Odusami, President of MAXUT Consulting, gave the advice during the ‘Cybersecurity and Banking Fraud Summit 2016’ in Lagos organised by the Information Technology (IT) firm in collaboration with Vasco, an authentication company.
“With the increase in online fraud, authentication of online transaction identity has become very important”, Odusami noted, adding that customers were interacting more with banks through electronic payment systems like Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Point of Sales terminals (POS), and online web portals. “People want to do things more online.
Recent statistics have shown that less people visit the bank branches regularly; they visit the ATM about three to five times per month; call centre five to 10 times per month, use the desktop about seven to 10 times per month and use the mobile phone to do transactions for 20 to 30 times per month,’’ he noted.
Reacting to the development of mobile transaction popularity, Odusami said that mobile threats will increase, as 60 per cent of mobile phone malware are specifically targeted to financial information on the devices, as there are security issues with mobile phones.
He noted that the security challenges continued to increase through the rise of Financial Technology-Driven providers entering the financial arena for simple financial services enabled by digital revolution.
“With more financial services being offered via the web, mobile will increase the target surface of cyber threats and frauds,” the MAXUT president said.
According to him, one of the increasing fraud risks and threats facing the banks were the links inside which were inimical to any cybersecurity defense.
Nicolas Poire, the Area Sales Manager Banking and France, Luxembourg, Africa said that mobile was the epicenter of the new banking habits, explaining that customers’ interactions were increasingly moving to mobile platform and the banking market was looking for frictionless and passwordless for authentication.