With nearly three in four people using third-party payment services tied to their bank accounts, the risk isn’t limited to your own policies and procedures…

An article review.

When working on cybersecurity awareness messages for your customers you may be inclined to focus on your own systems, but a new study on security in digital banking revealed some trends that may change your mind.

The study, performed by a consumer research firm, found that three out of four people surveyed reported using some kind of third-party payment service, with nearly half saying they used such services to send or receive money every week.

With many users of these platforms opting to link them to one or more of their bank accounts, it becomes easy to see how your customer’s security habits elsewhere can cause headaches for you.

To help mitigate these risks, the author of the report suggests your awareness messages remind customers that security technologies like two factor authentication should be used everywhere, and to not forget that what may seem like common knowledge may not be: the report showed that many respondents over the age of 60 started using online banking for the first time during the pandemic, suggesting that starting with the basics may not be a bad idea.

With payment services such at PayPal or Venmo becoming permanent institutions in many people’s lives, the benefits of explaining why cybersecurity awareness is important everywhere will only become more important in the future.

Original article by Reza Zaheri of Quantum Metric, writing for securityinfowatch.com.