Banks leave doors open for scammers with flaws in online security

Economy
By Liam

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Banks leave doors open for scammers with flaws in their online and app security. Which? research shows

  • An investigation found that several banks lacked basic protection against online fraud
  • Four categories tested for online banking and app security from the UK’s largest banks
  • HSBC came out on top for app security, while Starling came in first for online security
  • Virgin Money was the lowest scorer across the board behind Lloyds and NatWest

By Sean Poulter

published: | Updated:

Fundamental security flaws on the websites and apps of some of the largest banks put consumers at increased risk of fraud, research shows.

A study by Which? found that several banks lacked basic protections and fueled a multi-billion pound fraud epidemic.

In the first half of 2022 alone, more than 29,000 cases of remote banking fraud were reported to the industry association UK Finance. So which one? tested the security systems of 13 payment account providers from September to November 2022.

The banks were tested in four main categories – logging in, navigating and logging out, account management and encryption – for both their online banking and app security, and received a final score of 100 percent.

HSBC came out on top for its app security (82 percent) and second for online security (80 percent). Meanwhile, Starling came in first for online security (82 percent) and app second with Barclays (80 percent). However, Barclays’ online security scored only 69 percent.

In the first half of 2022 alone, more than 29,000 cases of remote banking fraud were reported to the industry association UK Finance

NatWest was third for online security (77 percent) but eighth for its app (66 percent).

And Lloyds again scored worse, coming in fourth (75 percent) for online security and eleventh (62 percent) for its app.

Virgin Money scored the lowest for both online (52 percent) and app security (54 percent).

Deputy editor of Which? Money, Sam Richardson, said, “Banks shouldn’t leave these doors open to scammers… and should do their best to protect customers.”

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