"Smartphones let us bring our photos, email and social media everywhere we go. Many of us use smartphones for mobile banking, shopping and storing important, private information. In spite of that wealth of stored data, Apple reports that half of all iPhone users ignore the passcode lock feature. Many users say it's just too cumbersome to tap in a passcode every time they need their phones. But that leaves information vulnerable if their phones are lost or stolen.

So Apple's iPhone 5S includes fingerprint-scanning technology called Touch ID to unlock the phone and make iTunes purchases. Some are calling it a key development: a more secure way to authenticate mobile transactions and protect your data. Others are concerned about privacy, worried that users' fingerprints will be kept on record at Apple or made available to third-party software developers." Continue Reading

"When Apple talks, who doesn’t listen? In mid-September the Cupertino, Calif., tech behemoth announced it would make fingerprint authentication available on its new iPhone 5S and immediately, across financial services, the question was raised: Will this impact mobile banking logins?

At the crux is the realization that the traditional username/password login is broken. There are way too many compromised logins and thus a rush to perfect other forms of authentication, often biometric." Continue Reading

Be safe with mobile banking
"Gone are the days when you wait for the bank to mail a bank statement and you balance your account before you spend any more money. Many of us now rely on online banking on our computer, smart phone or tablet. We check our accounts often and rely on this to make financial decisions."

Biometric Authentication Provides Better Mobile Device Security, Heavy Reading Finds
"Biometrics Offer Promise for More Secure Smartphones examines the market for biometric authentication on smartphones, analyzing the most lucrative verticals for the market, and discussing drivers and challenges in the industry. It includes a comparative analysis of solutions available and details trends that will likely occur in the industry over the next 18-24 months."

Double Cashing With Mobile Banking
"The case of a Kentucky man arrested this month for using mobile banking to steal thousands of dollars from a local supermarket chain highlights the security loopholes that thieves can exploit in mobile check deposit schemes being deployed by financial institutions across the country."

Five Tips for Mobile Banking
"In this tech-savvy world, everything is readily accessible and convenient…even banking. Gone are the days of waiting in line at the bank or even waiting for the computer to boot up. Now, bank accounts are accessible from anywhere in the world via a smart phone or tablet. But consumers need to be more cautious than ever when banking through any device, as hackers can prey on the unsuspecting."

HOW MOBILE PAYMENTS MIGHT BE THE GLOBAL MONEY-LAUNDERING MACHINE CRIMINALS HAVE DREAMED ABOUT
"Earlier this month, US prosecutors took down the global currency exchange Liberty Reserve and charged it with being the largest online money laundering operation in history, the “bank of choice for the criminal underworld.” More than a million customers used the Costa Rica-based company to wash more than 6ドル billion,according to an indictment. Besides drug traffickers, it alleged, Liberty Reserve’s illicit users included a wide array of gangsters and thugs, and criminal organizations engaged in credit card and investment fraud, identity theft, computer hacking, and child pornography."

Mobile banking software flaw adds to consumer wariness
"Customers of Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which includes NatWest and Ulster Bank, were recently saddled with the latest in a string of technical errors when an outage in the bank’s mobile app occurred. The outage, which lasted around two and a half hours, heightened concerns about the integrity of bank IT systems, particularly given other recent software troubles at RBS."

Extension News Column ~ Mobile Bank Safety
"Gone are the days when you wait for the bank to mail a bank statement and you balance your account before you spend any more money. Many of us now rely on online banking on our computer, smart phone or tablet. We check our accounts often and rely on this to make financial decisions. More than three million people used mobile banking last year, up 10 times over a year earlier. If you’re not yet using your phone to check your balance, pay your bills or move money from account to account, you will soon."

Startup Prepares Alternative to Online, Mobile Banking Passwords
"As banks struggle to move past passwords, a Silicon Valley startup is taking a stab at a fingerprint and facial recognition standard backed by some heavy hitters — PayPal and Lenovo among them. Nok Nok Labs, which was created a year ago by the founder of the data security vendor PGP, says it will eventually sell server software that will make the process of verifying the identity of online and mobile bank customers easier and more effective. The company plans to release its developer tool kit in March."

Is Mobile Banking Ready For Business?
"Though mobile has become an indispensable channel in banking, it hasn't quite become a "must-have" among corporate customers. Part of that is because of the limited screen size of most smartphones; corporate treasurers need to access large amounts of information, which could prove inconvenient and awkward to display on such a small device."

What’s holding us back from using mobile banking?
"If data were to be believed, a lot of you would have graduated from using Internet banking to mobile banking already but a lot of us have still not made the leap. Though the number of transactions through mobile banking increased by 64% in the April-December 2012 period, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), 67% of overall banking transactions still happens through cash, according to a 2011 Deloitte-Assocham study."

Banks boost mobile banking efforts
"More financial institutions are promoting their mobile banking offerings as a way to attract customers and also reduce expenses related to customer service calls and branch visits. While mobile banking has been around for five or six years now, The Wall Street Journal said banks are boosting their efforts to add new features, such as bill-paying capabilities, as customers become more comfortable using their mobile phones to conduct basic financial transactions."

Mobile Banking by Voice Next Up? Print Preview
"The question is fundamental: which is faster, and easier? Inputting commands into a smartphone by typing on glass or by talking them into the device? The fact is these are phones that were developed so that users could talk into them. Other features such as data input via typing, for instance, got added on later."