Help Us! We Want to be "E-Secured": Digital Banking Customers' Security Needs in South Africa

In the context of this paper digital banking refers to online, mobile, and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) banking. Digital banking, particularly online and mobile banking, is growing rapidly in South Africa. This is happening despite heightened security concerns, created in part by the media. The 2008 World Wide Worx and Wits Business School Digital Banking Research found that the level of sophistication related to the electronic related crime in the banking sector is extraordinary. The aforesaid research revealed that most of the digital banking crime affect online banking and ATM. The media captured the crime phenomenon by using catchy headlines. The 2008 World Wide Worx and Wits Business School Digital Banking Research employed both qualitative research approaches. Quantitative data collection method was employed at an elementary level to capture relevant statistics. Purposive sampling was used to select the participating banks. Researchers deliberately targeted the biggest banks in South Africa Standard Bank, ABSA, Nedbank, and Investec. Although the First National Bank did not participate in the 2008 study, researchers made deductions based on previous engagement with the bank. The research findings reflect various types of digital banking related crimes and some of the measures taken by the banks. These include SIM [Subscriber Identity Module] swop fraud, phishing, ATM bombings, card swapping, and card skimming. Seeing that customers are extremely concerned about the digital banking crime, the banks are reacting to the crime swiftly with a lot of sophistication. The phishing websites are removed and suspicious emails blocked. The spoof site can be knocked off the web within 48 hours whilst the fraudsters are tracked down speedily. With the assistance of the South African Police Services, banks have managed to bring down the frequency of the ATM bombings. Some of the methods employed by the banks to combat e-crime are very controversial. For example, some of the banks hire their own hackers and bomb their own ATMs. Banks also have dedicated e-crime units and invest huge financial resources on customer education. These initiatives are yielding good results. In the medium to long term, the success of countermeasures to crime in digital banking increases client confidence. Interestingly, this study found that some banking customers did not have fears regarding mobile banking as a delivery channel.