My iPhone is the least valuable thing I carry. I like it that way – William Lovegrove on e-Consultancy
… having been through this recently myself I would concur… my iphone5 had a security flaw in it that meant it could be unlocked, you hardly ever recover a stolen iphone because once the sim is out it’s untrackable and the identity theft risk is very tangible in a society that is ‘risk-innocent’ and not protecting itself appropriately.
It’s a race between a ‘few’ people who are looking at device security and a tipping point of security issues that wake people up to the risks… that tipping point will get closer once banks implement mobile wallets – the device will be a much bigger target.
I’ve been involved with or around a few Mobile Banking strategies for UK banks over the last few years. Banks are very keen to get in on the mobile wallet space and get ahead of Google, PayPal, Apple etc. However banks are not traditionally innovators, certainly in technology. They have been slow to wake up to the realisation that MOST companies now are enabled by technology (even in somecase have become primarily technology companies). No one was really discussing the issues highlighted in this article (some did but were cut down because ‘we have to be in on this’)
My experience is that the Banks, whilst rushing to develop cool mobile strategies that ‘position’ them for innovation and marketshare, are absolutely not going far enough in considering the wider impacts of this technology. Many have a good intent with making things easier for customers and increasing customer engagement. However if you are involved in enabling a technology to become so intrinsically more intimate (yes finances are intimate) and thereby also making us a target for crime without considering how to mitigate this then you are not really making it better for us.
Here’s what I need (with this particular subject lense on)
- Give me somewhere safe to put my money
- Make it easy for me to access (unless I want to lock it away in exchange for some upside)
Very much in that order!
Fraud departments of Banks need to be ahead of the game here (a lot are using old standards for new channels), technology groups need to be on top of the latest thinking/developments (a lot are outsourcing the development of mobile channels to 3rd parties).
If Banks are going to be truly serious about being involved in mobile payments and wallets there needs to be a step change in how they go about being drivers of technology and innovation – across all operations in the bank.
After my phone loss – I’ve locked my new phone down now, changed all my passwords to a very secure system, backed everything up, removed financial information from the phone, set findmyiphone to track (to no avail), downloaded hiddenapp for future protection, reviewed my mobile phone insurance – that’s all easy enough right?
I mean – EVERYONE does that right?
