Half (46%) of Internet users believe traditional over-the-counter banking is safer than banking online, according to a survey carried out by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International.
However, most still make some payments online although many fail to take even basic security measures, putting their money and banks’ reputations at risk.
The survey shows that a significant number of users (49%) feel vulnerable when making financial transactions online. Moreover, half (54%) reported they believe making payments offline is more reliable than online and 46% agreed that offline banking is the safer than online banking.
A total of 11,135 people aged 16 and over were surveyed, of which 51% were men and 49% were women. A quarter of respondents were aged under 24, 27% of users reported their age as between 25 and 34, 21% between 35 and 44 and 15% between 45 and 54. The older generation (55 or older) represented 12% of respondents. Results from China were excluded from the general worldwide data statistics in most cases due to the vastly different state of the Internet in the country.
However, in spite of these fears, the majority of internet users make online payments - 79% of those surveyed use their desktops or laptops for online payments, 52% use their tablets, 45% use their smartphones, and 12% of Smart-TV owners admitted using their Smart-TV for such operations. At the same time, according to the survey, one in five users do nothing to protect their financial data online.
One of the easiest ways for criminals to access online bank accounts is to pose as the account owner. This can be done by getting information about the account, setting up a phishing page where users unwittingly hand over their usernames and passwords, or by intercepting username and password data with a banking Trojan when users log on to their bank’s legitimate pages. Traditional computers and mobile devices are both vulnerable to these attacks.
“If customers choose traditional over-the-counter banking, from fear of falling victim to internet fraud, it will hamper the adoption of high-margin online and mobile payment systems. This will force banks to invest more of their resources in low margin branches instead,” said Ross Hogan, Global Head of the Fraud Prevention Division at Kaspersky Lab.
Meanwhile, among those who have adopted online and mobile payments, there is a persistent security concern as they may be putting their money – and the bank’s reputation – at unnecessary risk. That is why today it is vital that banks invest in technology ensuring a secure banking environment for their customers.”