Mobile Banking Security

How we protect your accounts online

Criminals may publish mobile banking smart phone software ("apps") designed to mimic the Provident app, in order to steal your online banking sign-on credentials. To help protect your accounts and information, only download Provident Credit Union’s mobile banking app using links from this site. The real Provident iPhone app is located on the App Store, here, and the real Provident Android app is located on Google Play, here. Provident does not endorse or support any other apps that require you to enter your online banking User ID and password.

Security for mobile Web access to online banking is similar to the full size online banking site. Your User ID and password are the same, and multi-factor authentication works similarly, asking you a security question if there is something unfamiliar about the way you are signing in. All communication is encrypted by industry-standard 128-bit SSL encryption, preventing successful cell phone "scanning" or other attempts to eavesdrop on a transmission.

Please note that some mobile phone companies decrypt and re-encrypt the transmission to and from their phone system and the Internet, and that Provident cannot take responsibility for the security or privacy of your information during that step. Of particular concern are the Opera Mini browser (designed for use on small-screen phones), or the Silk browser on the Amazon Fire.

For your own security, make sure to sign off every time that you are finished with your mobile banking session. Provident also recommends that members set a hard-to-guess password or PIN on the phone itself. Although mobile Web sessions do time out automatically, the last page you accessed may remain visible on some phones until you sign off manually or try to access another page after the timeout period, and these measures will help prevent casual viewing by anyone who picks up your phone.

Stolen Portable Devices

Because mobile phones and tablets are easy to lose or steal, please consider the following:
  • Enabling automatic screen-locking helps prevent unauthorized access when the device is not in use. The locked screen requires entering the correct password to unlock it. This is not foolproof, as the device can often be cracked via a separate computer to access the contents without using the password.
  • Setting up a remote wipe program will enable you to send a command to your lost or stolen device that will delete any stored data. This must be done quickly after the theft, however, as a dead battery, disabled Internet access, or even bad reception will prevent the wipe from taking place.
  • Store device records including device make, model, and serial number in a safe place in case you need to report it lost or stolen
  • You can disable access to mobile Web banking and Provident's mobile apps from within Provident's online banking. It is also a good idea to change your online banking password and User ID while you're at it, to further thwart any attempts to access your account by other means.
  • You can reach our Contact Center or your nearest community branch and they can disable your access to mobile banking

For more information about Provident's mobile banking, and a link to all of our mobile banking FAQs, please see our Mobile Banking page.


 

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