Phishing, ransomware and data leaks are going to be the biggest threats to banking businesses in the coming days. While the concerned stakeholders are focussing on the digital safety of paywalls currently, customers need to practice some methods on their part.

Use Private Wi-Fi For Online Banking

American non-profit body Consumer Reports recently reported about experts advising people to avoid public Wi-Fi during online banking (as it is unencrypted), since the network’s ‘Widespread Availability’ comes with hacking risks.

However, if you are using public Wi-Fi out of compulsion, take precautions like sticking with encrypted banking websites, apart from deleting your passwords from your browser after your banking activity gets over, and clearing your cookies (small blocks of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website).

Also, consider setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which will give you the opportunity to establish a protected network connection while using public Wi-Fi. VPNs will encrypt your internet traffic and disguise your online identity, thereby making it tough for threat actors to track your online activities and steal data.

Change Passwords Every Three Months

This activity will pose a challenge for hackers to steal/decode your banking data. You can take the help of a password manager for this activity. Choose longer passwords, throw a mix of upper and lowercase letters, include numbers and special characters, avoid common numerical sequences like ‘1234,’ and don’t use personal credentials like your name, pets’ names, date of birth, etc.

Also, don’t store your login details in your online banking/mobile app. Talking about password generators, ‘Google Password Manager’ is rated as ‘Very Secure’. Plus there are other top-rated password managers you can find through web research and yes, check their reviews carefully before opting for the services.

Get Two-factor Authentication

Through a two-factor authentication, the customer’s phone will be used to verify his/her identity when the person logs in.

“2FA is implemented to better protect both a user’s credentials and the resources the user can access. Two-factor authentication provides a higher level of security than authentication methods that depend on single-factor authentication (SFA), in which the user provides only one factor — typically, a password or passcode. Two-factor authentication methods rely on a user providing a password as the first factor and a second, different factor — usually either a security token or a biometric factor, such as a fingerprint or facial scan,” remarked TechTarget on the process.

Feel free to do online research or get expert help to secure your online banking data with 2FA features. Yes, it’s a time-consuming process, but a crucial one to keep you protected against the threat actors.

Be Sceptical For Your Own Good

Keep crucial data like your credit/debit card PINs, card numbers, and account numbers confidential. Don’t share them over email or any other messaging platform with anyone, not even your near ones. Keep yourself updated with the trends like threat actors impersonating banks’ customer support mechanisms, since this technique is getting more sophisticated with tools like Deepfake and AI.

If a web page looks suspicious, close your open browsers, clear your cache and restart your banking activity all over again by directly typing in your bank’s home page URL.

Check Your Account Balance Regularly

This is a good habit which comes in handy, in terms of spotting if you may have been wrongfully charged or if the money has been stolen from your account without your knowledge.

“Fraudsters constantly take advantage of bank account holders—to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In 2022 alone, the Federal Trade Commission received reports of more than USD 407 million in financial losses stemming from fraudulent bank transfers or payments. Meanwhile, wire transfer fraud accounted for more than USD 78 million in reported losses, with debit card fraud at nearly USD 50 million and check fraud at almost USD 47 million. Reviewing your bank account each day can help you discover fraudulent activity that, if it goes unnoticed, could cause plenty of financial pain. If you do notice potential fraud, contact your bank immediately,” remarked Texas-based journalist and content marketing veteran John Egan, in his May 24, 2023 blog on financial data and analytics firm Experian, a statement which is more than self-explanatory on why frequently checking your bank balance is a good practice.

The post Charting down secure ways to protect banking information appeared first on International Finance.

However, a revelation now states that the hype around Worldcoin has not been reflected much in the Return-on-Investment (ROI) percentage of its investors. Recent data accessed by Technext shows that over 98.52% of WLD investors are “currently counting their losses”, as within just a month, Worldcoin tokens have lost about 52% of their market value.

The latest trouble comes amid the virtual currency facing regulatory issues globally. The project is currently under investigation in Kenya, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, with debate breaking out over Worldcoin’s privacy and critical biometric data safety.

Worldcoin, which also issued a whitepaper during its launch, describes itself as a digital passport that can help the WLD holders prove that they are human. This will be achieved through the privacy-centric digital identity called ‘World ID’.

This World ID and the native token WLD can be acquired through simple verification of being a genuine human being.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, WLD traded at USD 2.2 around the first week of August 2023. However, the value came down to USD 1.06 in the next month. This shows that WLD has lost over 50% of its value within 30 days.

Data analytic firm IntoTheBlock also said that 98.52% of the current Worldcoin investors are currently in losses. This data indicates that just less than 2% of the token holders have made gains since July 2023.

While Kenya halted the project’s activities in its jurisdiction by citing controversial biometric scans of its citizens, Worldcoin witnessed a significant rise in its popularity and demand in Argentina.

The project reportedly crossed a major milestone with its ID verification in the South American country, as it signed up over 9,500 users in a single day in August, thereby setting a new record for single-day sign-ups.

“With the way the $WLD token is structured, it is not likely that the token would get genuine demand from investors which would propel a price surge. Most of the token holders got them as rewards, after having their eyeballs scanned by Worldcoin orbs at designated locations. And what happens after is that they convert the $WLD token to fiat immediately or soon after the scanning, and move on with their lives,” the Technext report observed.

Some 350,000 Kenyans, who lined up to get their eyeballs scanned by Worldcoin orbs located at the supermarket chain Quickmart’s Nairobi outlets, signed up with the project in the hope of getting free WLD tokens worth around 7,000 Kenyan shillings (USD 49.09).

The Kenyan residents then immediately converted the tokens to USDT before eventually converting the stablecoins to Kenyan shillings.

The Kenyans were reportedly interested in getting their eyeballs scanned for the pursuit of earning easy money via the Worldcoin tokens, as a certain Brian Mwangi, one of the WLD token recipients, told Bitcoin.com in August, “I was here by 5 am because there has been a lot of talk on TikTok and Instagram about the free money Worldcoin is giving all those who download their app and subscribe, we are for the iris scanner so that we can be sorted.”

Kenya now has warned its citizens to be cautious while giving their data to private companies, as the East African country was concerned about how the biometric data was getting stored, apart from “a private company offering money in exchange for citizens’ confidential data”.

The nation has now launched an investigation into Worldcoin and called on security services and data protection agencies to establish the project’s authenticity and legality.

Worldcoin, in response, told the media that it was planning to implement crowd-control measures and collaborate with the Kenyan government before resuming work.

Also, France’s data watchdog recently carried out “checks” at Worldcoin’s Paris office, as it felt that the legality of these biometric data “seemed questionable”.

To make matters worse, in May 2023, reports surfaced about hackers installing password-stealing malware on the devices of Worldcoin Orb operators.

TechCrunch learned about Worldcoin operators getting their personal devices compromised by password-stealing malware, such as the RedLine information stealer, to steal all of the credentials saved in their browser, including login details for the operator app.

Credentials of at least seven Orb operators were listed on the dark web. These included credentials that gave hackers full access to the Worldcoin Orb operators’ dashboard, which lacked security features like two-factor or multi-factor authentications.

Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/

The post Value loss, regulatory heat and data leak: Worldcoin runs into headwinds appeared first on International Finance.