Kristin R. MoyerAlistair Newton and Kristin Moyer here. “First Tech Credit Union has warned that a malicious application designed to steal banking details has made its way onto Google’s Android Market (see here).”
What is interesting about this is not so much the fact that it’s a virus on the phone, or that it’s attacking the mobile banking application. We’ll be expecting more of those. But more the advice on what to do to ensure it is removed. The credit union tells people who have downloaded it to “remove it from your phone and take it to your mobile provider to ensure it’s completely removed.”
Now I know what would happen if I took my phone to my mobile phone provider – they would look at my incredulously and shrug their shoulders. At the very best they might take my phone off me and send it away to be repaired. Leaving me phone-less for weeks.
I wonder how many more of these type scares will be needed before we see a subtle under-mining of people’s desires to use their phones for higher risk banking transactions.
Category: payments Tags: mobile banking
1 response so far ↓
1 Bob January 18, 2010 at 8:54 am
Maybe there is something to be said for Apple’s closed environment on the iPhone after all.