DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THREAT DETECTION IN MOBILE BANKING PLATFORM

This study is centred on the design and implementation of threat detection in mobile banking platform, which is based on the notion of client-server models. Mobile banking platform is a platform of financial transactions that uses mobile applications installed on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This platform can be accessed through authentication of users to help identify legitimate customers. It provides a series of transactions for the customers, which includes but not limited to funds transfer, bill payments, and checking of account balance. However, the increased usage of mobile banking occasioned by the widespread use of mobile devices, introduces security threats that must be mitigated. These threats can undermine the gains of mobile banking if not checkmated. Threat is the potential cause of an undesirable incident that may result in harm to a system, an individual or an organisation. Threats detection can be accomplished via access control. One of the ways to do this is through the use of a twofactor authentication method (username, password and token). This work comprises of a Mobile Application, Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) and Relational Database Structure. The mobile application is implemented in Java Programming Language on an Android Phone, the relational database structure in My Sequence Query Language (MySQL), while the JEE connects the mobile application with the database. Threat is detected after three consecutive unsuccessful attempts to login. After the third failed attempt to login, the message “You have exhausted your number of trials, your account has been disabled, contact admin”, will be displayed on the user interface layer. This research work goes a long way in helping financial institutions in detecting threats to mobile banking platform thereby upholding their reputation and boosting customers’ trust.