Using mobile banking at home with wifi

sal_III

Whoever told you that there is a material difference in security with mobile banking between mobile data and home WiFi was wrong. There isn't, they are equally secure.

Save yourself some cash by using your home WiFi instead of the PAYG mobile data.

SeeMe

Thanks all for the replies.
I have been looking for the article which suggested this but at the moment cant find it, may be i took it the wrong way, but am reassured by the feed back here.

Notepad_Phil

SeeMe wrote: »

Thanks all for the replies.
I have been looking for the article which suggested this but at the moment cant find it, may be i took it the wrong way, but am reassured by the feed back here.

I wonder if it was talking about the free wifi that you can get in coffee shops etc, which can be a great deal less secure than using your own data plan depending on how good/poor that free wifi has been set up.

I personally never use free wifi as I've no idea of the competence of the person setting it up.

robatwork

If anyone can find any actual evidence of fraud or people losing money from doing internet banking on their own wifi, I'd love to see it.

I couldn't even find any (although lots of warnings) about doing mobile banking on public wifi.

SeeMe

I have seen this part review, is this just someone's opinion, or am i reading it the wrong way.I know public wifi is mentioned but even home wifi is mentioned in the last sentence.




Use cellular networks: If you have a data plan, use your mobile network instead of Wi-Fi for banking.3 It’s still possible for thieves to get into those networks, but it’s not nearly as easy as hacking Wi-Fi. If you can tether other devices or set up a mobile hotspot, do that — at least while you conduct banking business.


Avoiding Wi-Fi altogether is not realistic. It’s probably not even practical to save banking sessions for when you’re at home or on a wired connection. But you should be aware of the risks you take when using free public Wi-Fi. Plus, there’s some risk when you bank with Wi-Fi at home or in a hotel room.

robatwork

SeeMe wrote: »

Avoiding Wi-Fi altogether is not realistic. It’s probably not even practical to save banking sessions for when you’re at home or on a wired connection. But you should be aware of the risks you take when using free public Wi-Fi. Plus, there’s some risk when you bank with Wi-Fi at home or in a hotel room.

The question is what, exactly, is the risk? It would help the OP and public if it could be quantified.

We all know there is "a risk", but where is the evidence that even using hotel wifi has resulted in actual fraud? If it's just a theory then that's just an unnecessary level of tinfoil hatness.

sal_III

SeeMe wrote: »

I have seen this part review, is this just someone's opinion, or am i reading it the wrong way.I know public wifi is mentioned but even home wifi is mentioned in the last sentence.




Use cellular networks: If you have a data plan, use your mobile network instead of Wi-Fi for banking.3 It’s still possible for thieves to get into those networks, but it’s not nearly as easy as hacking Wi-Fi. If you can tether other devices or set up a mobile hotspot, do that — at least while you conduct banking business.


Avoiding Wi-Fi altogether is not realistic. It’s probably not even practical to save banking sessions for when you’re at home or on a wired connection. But you should be aware of the risks you take when using free public Wi-Fi. Plus, there’s some risk when you bank with Wi-Fi at home or in a hotel room.

It's tinfoil hat grade paranoia, nothing else.

robatwork wrote: »

The question is what, exactly, is the risk? It would help the OP and public if it could be quantified.

We all know there is "a risk", but where is the evidence that even using hotel wifi has resulted in actual fraud? If it's just a theory then that's just an unnecessary level of tinfoil hatness.

The risk is, that is rather trivial to connect to even password secured home WiFi and intercept local traffic before it goes from your device to the router end onward to the internet.

Not so easy to intercept traffic from a mobile device to the local mast, but still doable.

Both miss the fact that all internet banking traffic is encrypted so even intercepting on the local WiFi won't gain anything for the crims.

afis1904

There isn't really any evidence of banking apps being unsafe no matter where you use them. Most of it is just paranoia (same with people who get NFC blocking wallets).