Study of Mobile Payment Security Risks

Abstract

Mobile money usage for transactions is steadily growing across Africa with the potential to revolutionize the cash-dominant economy of this continent to be cashless. With the increased use of mobile money services and number of business use cases designed each day, it is imperative to design a holistic approach to mobile money security that will reduce security exposures and prevent fraud, as some mobile money service providers have lost millions of dollars to this growing threat. This research, therefore examines the measures that mobile network operators providing mobile money services can employ to prevent fraud. The research was a case study of mobile money security in Sudan and used qualitative and quantitative data collected through questionnaires and structured interviews of key staff of the mobile network operator (MNO) The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to capture the questionnaire data and to produce the necessary reports. Some of the main findings of this research include the general perception that there is direct linkage between mobile phone protection and mobile money security. It was further identified that one of the major causes of consumer driven fraud is PIN sharing. In addressing mobile money fraud, it is suggested that the service provider should give mobile money security tips to the users at least twice in a year through short message service (SMS) to alert them of ways to enhance the security of their mobile phones.