MONTREAL - This February, one of Canada’s big banks was the first Canadian financial institution to introduce a mobile banking application, available for download directly from their website or from the Apple App Store. Other Canadian financial institutions will likely follow suit.

While such technological innovations undoubtedly introduce greater flexibility for Canadians in their banking transactions, increased ease of access to one’s bank account also brings about a greater risk of fraud.

Specifically, one of the underlying benefits of smartphone applications is that any programmer can create, develop, and then publish their application. But while this open conception process has allowed for the creation of useful applications, it has also brought about opportunities for any developer to create fictitious, malicious programs which target and acquire individual user’s sensitive banking information.