Banking 2023: The Pros and Cons of Doing It All Online

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In today’s digital age, banking online has become the default choice for many. A 2022 report from Morning Consult found that 52% of Americans do most of their banking online. It’s not surprising that the majority of us have taken to online banking — it’s easy, convenient and mobile-friendly. But is it really safe?

Online banking has gotten a lot safer in recent years, but it’s not 100% out of harm’s way, and there have been more than a couple serious security breaches at major security breaches at top financial institutions.

“I remember learning about the data breach at JPMorgan Chase in 2014 while I was still in school,” said Barbara Donatien, cyber risk advisory manager at BARR Advisory. “Data associated with millions of accounts for individual households and small businesses was compromised. The cause of the attack was malicious computer code — in other words, malware that had found its way onto an employee’s personal computer. The incident was discovered after a month, but the bank confirmed there was no breach of financial details or login information. Data that was breached, however, included personally identifiable information such as names, email addresses and phone numbers.”

As a result of this security breach, JPMorgan Chase was able to spot a flaw in its information security environment and ultimately make it better.

“This was a great reminder that there is a critical need for technology to evolve to remain a step ahead of cybercrime,” Donatien said.

Let’s explore what makes online banking safe (or mostly safe) and then get into online banking red flags and what consumers can do to best protect themselves from risk.

“Digital banking, both online and via our mobile devices, is safe,” said Sathish Muthukrishnan, chief information, data and digital officer at Ally. “While evaluating options, ensure that key security features are provided by the bank.”

“The implementation of industry-standard security measures has made perhaps the largest impact,” Donatien said. “This means using top-notch security practices backed by up-to-date technology. Some common security features include multi-factor authentication (MFA), automatic logout and even biometric authentication.”

“Text and email alerts for transactions help users quickly identify unauthorized activity,” Donatien said.