Perception of Security Indicators in Online Sites

Abstract

Internet banking provides alternatives for faster delivery of banking services to a wider range of customers. These services have attracted the attention of legitimate and illegitimate online banking practices. Customers are liable to criminal activities, fraud, thefts and other similar threats. Criminals focus on stealing user's online banking credentials because the username and password combination are relatively easy to acquire and utilize to access Internet banking accounts and commit financial fraud. To alert users, many banking sites are now including Security Indicators (SI) to their sites. This paper describes a user study conducted using questionnaires to investigate user's perception of factors influencing the effective implementation of existing SI objectives and evaluate the effectiveness of SI in banking web browsers using the Communication-Human Information Processing Model (C-HIP). Thirteen (13) banks in Nigeria were randomly selected for the study. Data analysis revealed that SI are not very effective at alerting and shielding users from revealing sensitive information to spoofed sites because 27(19.7%) of the 137 participants never even noticed that a warning appeared. These outcomes may help the management of banks develop effective security strategies for the future of electronic banking in Nigeria.