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Security and Privacy Plague Mobile Web's Forward Motion

A new article from eMarketer examines concerns that consumers have expressed about mobile - chief among them, privacy and security. 

by Jimmy Marks

It used to be that "The Internet" was something you used in your home. You had to have a computer connected to the web via cable. Then came the idea that the Internet was a practical business tool - email revolutionizes communication! High-speed Internet makes websites more robust! Wi-Fi is the new guard - the web without wires, in every Hotel, Airport, Starbucks and McDonald's in your neighborhood. 

Mobile is the latest wave on the shore. The same Internet that used to demand that we buy large tower CPUs and big monitors now only requires us to have a smartphone and our thumbs. But there's something troubling about that - it's the same Internet. Which means the same problems and the same fears. 

Take a look at this chart from eMarketer. There are concerns among smartphone users about apps that track their various patterns (you've already heard about the iPhone tracking issue to be sure). Smartphones and tablets emit and receive data - what does that data say about the user? Is the picture flattering? 

When it comes to moving your financial institution forward with mobile, how are you allaying concerns about security? Did you do a good job of getting your customers to trust your OLB and website? If not, try to recover the fumble for mobile - it could make or break you in the long run. 

 

Should Online Acquaintance Be Forgot? We Think So.

by Ron Daly 

I came across this story the other day from Usability Post which asks "Is it time to make 'Remember Me' the default for password protected websites?" This question comes as the result of a few articles about password memory, one which asks if it's time to do away with the option of "Remember Me" and go with automatic login. Another article by web-genius Jakob Nielsen suggests we get rid of the "dots" in the password field (i.e., "Password: ******"), because doing so would increase confidence in those who have trouble with passwords and save them the trouble of copy-pasting passwords. 

What do I think? No. To all of the above, I say no. No, no, no. 

Maybe I'm a little kooky about auto-login and password protection standards. I have to be, it's part of my business. DigitalMailer has lots of clients to manage and those clients all fall under the heading of "information too important to compromise". So we don't use "auto-fill" here, we don't use "save password/remember me" fields, we don't have "oops, I forgot" lists for passwords - none of that. We don't do those things because we value our client's safety. I don't know that it's such a great idea to do with your OWN information, either. 

Can I See Your ID?

by Ron Daly

When you work in online services, issues of trust and reliability are on the forefront of any discussion you have about your product and how it will be perceived by users. E-mail marketing, for example, suffers from the perception that messages sent won't make it to the inbox. DigitalMailer's spent nine years getting white listed by the largest ISPs in the world, so we can answer most critics with a high rate of delivery and a set of standards and best practices that keep words like SPAM out of our vocabulary. 

Ebay, Amazon, Netflix, - they all had to take into account that they'd be doing business behind a curtain. When you buy from someone online, whether they're the vendor or they're acting as a middle-man, they would need to establish privacy regulations and a level of dependability in their services. 

What if the system worked both ways? 

Life is brief, but e-mail is forever: Who takes over your online presence when you go?

by Ron Daly 

I don't need no aggravation
when the train has left the station
if you're there or not, I may not even know

Have a round and remember
things I did that ain't so tender. 
Let the train blow the whistle when I go. 

That song is an old one. It goes back to a time when dying was as simple as getting shot in while rustling cattle, and the biggest request you had upon death was "O, bury me not on the lone praerie." 

Nowadays, it's all about who handles your will, who inherits your belongings...and who's going to keep your long-standing Twitter legacy going. 

As online users get more and more dependent on the web to manage their information and run their lives, a grim eye moves to the future. Sure, older folks who are going off into that gentle night aren't using the web with the frequency of the generations that they sired. But nobody here is getting younger, and the question stands: who will take over your online accounts when you check out?

One solution, according to the Wall Street Journal, is the virtual safe deposit box (click here to read). Once you are proven dead, your "e-xecutor" will be given the login information of your online accounts. From there, they can take on your accounts and manage further payments in your name, close accounts, etc. 

DigitalMailer is working on its own version of this, which will allow you to keep digital copies of your deposit box contents inside your customer communication center account. Will this trend only grow as the years go on? I can only assume it will. After all, being gone doesn't mean being forgotten...and it doesn't mean you can't send e-mail. 

Do you have a backup plan for your online info? 

Leave your thoughts below. 

The Heartland Hack and You

by Jimmy Marks

I've written articles about password troubles before, but when it comes to any security smarter than that, I defer to those of greater experience. 

Ron, for instance, looks at the break-in from the POV of a former credit union CFO. He wrote a good article yesterday for CU Soapbox (click here). An excerpt: 

...I've had small breaks (80 member accounts affected) and fairly big breaks (400 member accounts affected). There's the estimated ~$15 you spend reissuing cards and closing accounts. And then there's the ~$10 you spend on credit monitoring on the accounts. That's ~$25 per account, so at worst it's about $10,000 that I've had to account for after a breach. And that's why, recently, there's a thought that's been troubling me.

The thought that the breach of Heartland Payment Systems has the potential to affect up to 100 million accounts. Click here for the CU Journal article.

100 million! One. Hundred. Million. I'm hoping the math makes sense for you here, because 100 million times $25 equals $2.5 BILLION. In losses and monitoring and trouble and waste.

It's a troubling aspect, that you'd be costing millions, if not billions, in damages. 

Rob had some issues with the break-in, too. Being the CIO/Security Specialist at DigitalMailer, he knows a thing or two (or two million, really) about security standards.