The best Online Banking Security tips

In the age of technology that has brought convenience to our lives, online banking is a great way to manage your bank accounts virtually without stressing over the schedule of visiting your bank. There are consequences too that one must be aware of with excellent online facilities to avoid data leaks. Here are the best online banking security tips you should know to keep your bank accounts secure.

These days people rely on online practices, whether online shopping, bank remittance, paying bills, or applying for an institute; everything has been transformed from physical to virtual platforms. In this scenario, it has become easy for online scammers, data thieves, and cybercriminals to steal your banking data with the slightest bit of information you leave digitally.

However, with a minor mistake, one can lose their entire savings to unretrievable extents. To prevent these unfortunate events, read the full blog to follow the best online banking security tips that would save your money and time.

Choose Difficult to guess Passwords

Passwords play a considerable role in saving your money. Going for easy-to-guess passwords can put your online security at risk. Besides that, choosing strong and unique passwords cannot let identity thieves invade your personal space.

There are some dos and don’ts while choosing your password for your online banking security, and one must be concerned enough to follow the guidelines below.

Things You Should Never Do While Setting a Password

• Applying your date of birth, mobile number, pet’s name, or any of your favorite things’ names.
• Entering orderly aligned alphabets and numbers like “abcd” or “12345678”
• Saving your passwords in your bank’s portals
• Choosing small passwords
• Not updating your passwords once in a while
• Giving your password to anyone
• Using the same password for multi logins.

Things You Must Follow While Setting a Password

• Always go for two-factor authentication if your bank provides it.
• Use a combination of “Uppercase” and “Lowercase” letters
• Use a larger password with variations in characters.
• Include numbers and special characters
• Use Password Manager.

Following these practical procedures can save all the hassle of losing your hard-earned money. Hence, using strong passwords can prevent access to your banking information to steal your money.

Moreover, you must change their login credentials every three to six months to prevent data theft. However, it would be a hectic task to remember long passwords. Hence, using “Password Manager.”

Besides that, using a safe and secure browser can also secure your banking credentials from any malware attack and suspicious events.

Stop Relying on Public Wi-Fi

People often use public Wi-Fi unconsciously, during shopping or having lunch at their favorite restaurant without giving it a second thought when the mind is in a hurry about the immediate transaction they need to make.

Open public WiFi doesn’t use encryption. They are not encrypted to protect your information from being leaked. Once you enter the banking credentials using an unsecure public Wi-Fi, online banking information becomes vulnerable to third-party criminals. To prevent the situation, stop relying on public Wi-Fi in any condition to protect online banking information.

However, if there’s an immediate need and public WiFi is the only option, read these security protocols to use them accordingly.

• Connect through a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to encrypt your online activities.
• Check for the secured URL’s “HTTPS” in the connected browser.
• You can also confirm the site’s authenticity by checking the “lock icon” at the left side of the URL you have typed.
• Your device must have an antivirus and firewall to warn you if any suspicious activity would be detected while using public WiFi.

Using these simple yet effective security measures can secure your online banking credentials.

Activate Banking Alerts

Signing up for banking alerts and notifications are the crucial steps one must take to get updates about their banking activity. Getting updated records of debit and credit transactions via email and phone numbers lessens the chances for data thefts.

Since the bank communicates with you via these mediums, you get notifications for every transaction. For instance, if an online scammer tries to break in with your credentials and logs into your account, you will be notified via notification in the form of failed login alerts, access to the account from a different browser alert, wire transfer alert, or password change alert.

Following the notification alerts, you can always contact your bank immediately to take appropriate measures and prevent fraudulent activity by changing your online banking credentials.

Never Click On Suspicious Emails

Never get into that trap by clicking on an email link that asks for your banking or personal credentials. These are hacking techniques by cybercriminals to obtain your online banking credentials through Phishing.

Opening a link can give access to online criminals, and your data can suffer. Having good research about these suspicious domains is essential. They are never the same as your bank’s and have a slight difference that one can notice by going through the URL, searching for “HTTPS” in the URL, or reading the email sender’s address.

To verify fraudulent email attachments, you should check for these things:

• Always confirm the last three letters of an email.
• It is a warning if they contain exe, jar, mat, msl, cpi, js and wsf.
• If the letter “m” is included with the standard extensions like these “docm, pptm” it’s a tipoff to delete the email immediately.

Choose Your Financial Application Discreetly

Before you download a financial application for online banking, you must do it from an authorized store by checking the ratings and history if it does have any. To choose your financial app discreetly and avoid inconvenience, follow these guidelines before performing.

• You must confirm that you are downloading/using your bank’s official application.
• Be very careful not to give access to your banking application to any virtual finance management businesses.
• Never save your login credentials on these applications.
• Always check the App Store/Play Store ratings.
• Research the application thoroughly, whether it has a history of any data breaches, so that you can be aware.

Moreover, after downloading and logging in to your banking application, never save your sensitive information in the application and always log in with a secure internet connection. Using a VPN can work cherry on the top.

Use Updated Technology

The user must check for the application updates to implement the latest security patches. Using updated technology can secure user information in a better way. One must use encryption, secure web browsers, anti-virus, firewall in a computer, and two-factor authentication (2FA) to prevent malicious attacks.

Online transactions using tools like VPN can provide more robust security features while using public WiFi.

Wrapping Up

These are the best online banking security tips that you should strictly follow to avoid online scams. In a nutshell, online banking has eased hectic lives to a great extent, but there is a lot of precautions that you must take.

Keeping up with crucial security measures like using a VPN, secure browsers, being aware of malicious attacks, firewall security, and security practices like strong and complex passwords, identifying phishing scams helps you prepare against cybercriminals.

Lastly, if you suspect any mysterious activity, call or visit the bank to get a hold on the activity.