Tag: smartphone payments security

Smartphone and tablet banking has been suffering from the same worries from consumers.

Despite the fact that smartphone payments and banking services are being used by a growing number of people, mobile security concerns are keeping the rate of adoption at a notably lower level than its full potential.

This, according to the most recent report issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The report was issued by the bureau in its partnership with Viggle and with InMobi. They discovered that while smartphones and tablets are being used increasingly by consumers who are managing their money online, its adoption would be greater if certain barriers did not remain in the way. Among consumers, 58 percent regularly use the app from their bank, while 50 percent use the optimized website. That said, there remain a large number of individuals who hesitate to use these services due to mobile security concerns.

Mobile security has not yet proven itself to many of the potential users who have yet to be swayed.

According to the vice president and general manager for the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Anna Bager, discussed the situation studied in the research when she said “Clearly, mobile users are leaning into their devices for personal finance assistance wherever and whenever they happen to have a need.”

However, Bager also pointed out that consumers are still worried over mobile security issues with this type of services, even though they are using them more than they have before. She explained that “Most financial apps already contain rock-solid security, but consumers seem not to be as plugged into that fact, and that knowledge gap can make all the difference in driving further usage and adoption.”

Bager said that mobile security is an area where financial services marketers should be placing a significant amount of their focus in the campaigns that they are planning. The supported this belief, as 52 percent of its participants said that they would require a concrete guarantee, even in the case that the device should be lost, before they would use a smartphone for payments and banking for the first time, or before they would increase their use for these activities.

Instructions have been released to help to decrease the risk associated with transactions in certain areas.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council has just released new merchant guidance to help to increase the security available while accepting mobile payments, which is an inherently risky area.

It is recommended that card acquirers and issuers, and banking institutions should apply this guidance.

These types of institution should help to provide this mobile payments guidance while assisting merchants with security in end to end transactions. This, according to Steve Kenneally from the American Bankers Association Center for Regulatory Compliance. He added that “Shining a spotlight on the need to improve payment security is always a great idea.” And said that “Providing specific recommendations on how to achieve a higher level of security is even better.”

The mobile payments environment must be made secure before consumers can be ensured that it is safe.

Kenneally said that his organization anticipates that the PCI guidelines will be able to be used as an additional important tool that can be used by acquirers in order to boost the security of transactions through merchants.

Among the mobile payments security issues that were addressed within this new guidance from the PCI Council are the following:

• Account data entry risks connected with smartphones and tablets, including the information transmitted through the devices as well as the data that is stored within those gadgets.
• The procedures that should be followed by merchants in order to make certain of the security on a physical and transactional level with the devices that are used for the acceptance of the mobile payments.
• Instructions for the various components that should be applied to the acceptance of the transactions, such as software, hardware, and the use of various different acceptance solutions, in addition to considerations regarding the relationship with the customer him or herself.

The PCI guidelines, said Kenneally, take into account that some of the qualities that make accepting mobile payments as appealing to merchants as it is can also offer opportunities to fraudsters. Therefore, it is very important to take specific and careful action to avoid risks as much as is possible.