Is banking online secure? Most readers will be shocked to learn that internet banking is actually safer than traditional branch banking, in contrast to prevalent belief that it raises security risks. Banking institutions are heavily investing in their security measures, despite the fact that digital banking forums are vulnerable to hacks and vulnerabilities including phishing, pharming, identity theft, and keylogging. When thinking about a service like digital banking, security is of utmost importance. More so than jeopardising customer data and resources, financial organisations cannot afford unfavourable PR. If security were to be breached, banks would lose a key selling point. You would be entitled to get the adequate amount of your bank balance in the unlikely event that banks really lost your money to a hacker for the simple reason that your money is secure. As a result, banks must make significant investments to increase the security of digital banking platforms in order to avoid significant public responsibility and negative publicity.

A user of digital banking must, however, do their bit by adhering to particular procedures that serve as a safeguard:

• Follow instructions to change your passwords frequently and to keep them private.
• To access digital banking, stay away from public networks and devices; if you must, remember to erase the cache and browser data. It’s best practise to prevent the browser from saving your login and password for your bank accounts.
• Confidential information is never requested by banks, so don’t provide it to anyone who does.
• A padlock must display next to the website address if the URL does not start with “https”. A security certificate is the lock. When the website is protected with an SSL certificate, the address bar becomes green, which is further confirmation of the website’s security. Use the bank’s URL instead of any other links, and avoid doing so. Banks often utilise SSL encryption with a minimum of 128 bits.