Financial Data and the Mobile Generation

By Greg Day, EMEA Security CTO for Symantec | March 4, 2010 | 1 Comment 

Greg Day, EMEA Security CTO for Symantec

Last week we blogged about a report forecasting an increase in people using mobile devices to interact with their banks. At around the same time, Cisco also announced the findings of its US retail bank study, looking at How the Post-Crisis Financial Needs of Younger Consumers Will Transform Retail Banking Services.

The report looked at US Generation Ys, defined as being born between 1980 and 1992, and found that 97 per cent use mobile phones, a number that’s likely to be very similar in the UK – not unsurprising you might say. The really interesting finding is that Gen Y consumers are four times more likely than ‘boomers’ and ‘silvers’ (those born before 1960) to have posted a question about financial matters to a blog or online forum. Furthermore, 40 per cent of Gen Y customers use web-based personal financial management tools to manage expenses, reduce debt, and maximise long-term savings.

Generation Ys across the pond are clearly making the most of mobile technology to handle their finances, as they are most likely doing here in the UK.

As we blogged last week, more and more valuable information, like bank account numbers or passwords, are being stored on devices, like smartphones, and is presenting increased opportunities for cybercriminals. The banks who are offering mobile services need to ensure adequate security measures are in place and, most importantly, that Gen Y and other users who want to take advantage of the benefits and convenience of mobile banking are better educated about how to keep their data safe.

Photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt

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One Response to “Financial Data and the Mobile Generation”

  1. Mobile hacking highlights need for mobile security : View From The Bunker on March 25th, 2010

    [...] the biggest problem around mobile security, there is also the problem resulting from the increasing volume of ‘stealable’ business data which is held on them, made worse by the current poor encryption. [...]

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