With financial apps, you can have control of your finances right at your fingertips. Most allow you to transfer money, look up your bank account information, pay bills, or make purchases. However, you need to be very careful when downloading or using a financial app because such apps are often targets for hackers.
Your Financial App and Hackers
Financial apps have a degree of vulnerability that hackers can exploit. It’s important that you take a few steps to secure any financial app on your device.
Tips for using financial Apps Safely
Your financial app can only be as secure as you can keep it. No matter the security precautions taken by the developers, you will have to play your part in keeping it from hackers.
Use your bank’s app
Most banks have developed apps for their customers. With these apps customers can transfer funds, make purchases or pay bills. While there are some good third-party financial apps you can trust to help you with these transactions, most are actually not honest and may compromise your data. To avoid this, it’s advisable that you download and only use your bank app or use a bank who works exclusively through an app.
Read reviews and TOS
Before using any financial app, ensure you read reviews of the app from forums or app stores, this way, you know what you are getting into.
Only download apps that use encryption and other safety measures
Only use a financial app that provides assurance your data is encrypted when in transit and in storage. A good financial app should encrypt your data as it leaves your phone and should be encrypted when stored so no one can pry into it.
Use mobile antimalware
There are lots of malwares in the form of apps. These malicious malwares can steal your data and send to third-parties without your consent. To prevent this, ensure you install anti-malware on your device.
Research the developer
It’s a good idea to know a little about the developer of a financial app before using it. Only use financial apps from developers with good reputations.
Protect yourself with a Complicated password
Avoid passwords that have to do with your name, date of birth or child – those are easy to guess. Choose complicated passwords that are easy for you to remember but hard for anyone to guess.
Avoid auto-logins when you access a site
When accessing your financial app through the web, avoid password-saving or auto-login features of web browsers, it only makes your account more vulnerable to hackers.
Use anti-virus software on your phone
Anti-virus software can help detect apps that are stealing data from your phone to. So, it’s a good idea to have good antivirus installed on your device
Be discreet in public
While in the public, avoid calling out your passwords or even typing it with others looking on. Do not use public Wi-Fi to access your financial apps. The data in a public Wi-Fi are open to all who want to take a look.
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