Gap between Requirements of Online Banking and Expectations of Consumers - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal on Online Security Background For several centuries, security has always been one of the major concerns of human society, and it is an observation that societies have continued to put efforts to identify and explore new strategies and methodologies to increase and enhance the level of security and safety in different processes of the society (Dhillon, pp. 29-32, 2001). Today, one can observe huge advancements in the field of information and technology that has changed the perspectives and practice of almost every field in different parts of the globe. In the result of such technological advancements, the banking industry has also benefited from it and nowadays, huge numbers of financial institutions (Mannan, pp. 1-14, 2007) are offering online banking services and online trading services to their customers and consumers around the globe. In addition, various financial institutions are involved in including new technological updates in their systems that is enabling them to provide efficient services to their customers. In the result, reports (Mannan, pp. 1-14, 2007) indicate enormous increment in the number of users of online banking services that show alteration in the consumer behavior, and thus, banking institutions are continuing their updates, and at the same time, endeavoring to ensure security and safety of customer’s money. In other words, one can converse from such analysis (Azari, pp. 55-60, 2003) that information technology has completely altered the notion of banking and trading in an obvious manner due to inclusion of automation in almost every process that has made lives easier. However, still, in midst of such extensive amount of technologies, experts and researchers (Yap, pp. 440-445, 2006) believe that financial institutions are still incapable of providing 100% security to their customers. Even marketing brochures and advertisement materials indicate high-level security; however, studies (Oyungerel, pp. 39-56, 2008) have indicated that even financial institutions are themselves not sure about their claim in the advertisements. In addition, a number of reports (Mannan, pp .1-14, 2007) have shown cases of identity theft, credit card theft, bank account thefts, etc that indicates the vulnerability of online banking or online trading services. Although various experts (Mohay, pp. 23-39, 2003) have appreciated the impact of technological advancements in the form of online banking; however, scrutiny of resources has identified a number of reports (O’Gara, pp. 59-64, 2004) that have recognised vulnerable nature of online banking services. In addition, they have identified the gap that exists between the understanding of consumers regarding online security and the requirements of banking institutions, or in other words, the reality. In this regard, experts (Green & Fischer, pp. 50-61, 2004) have indicated that somehow financial institutions have been successful in convincing or rather misleading consumers regarding their trust in the level of online security in banking or trading services. However, unfortunately, this is not the case. Analysis of studies (Gross & Rosson, pp. 1-10, 2007) related to regular users of online banking has specify that the users are more inclined towards factors such as comfort, ease, accessibility, speedy, etc, as compared with high levels of security. Although every user shows concern about the level of security, however, it is an observation (Buzan, pp. 67-70, 1998) that only ten percent of online banking users put efforts to check and confirm the level of security. In addition, majority of users play their role as mislead users or blind users that has been the major reason of huge number of identity thefts or account thefts in the online banking environments on global level. For instance, during a study (Mannan, pp .1-14, 2007) of Canadian online banking system, experts observed that although banking institutions endeavor to ensure secure banking environments to their customers, however, they expect the customers to fulfill their security requirements that usually are unknown to the customers. In this regard, undoubtedly, there exists a huge gap between anticipations of customers and banking agreements. Examination of resources (Pfleeger, pp. 48-50, 2003) related to online security has indicated that inclusion of technological tools in the banking industry has facilitated customers in carrying out their transactions effectively. Most importantly, easily with the accessibility to various other options, such as fund transfer, bank statements, bill payments, etc on the internet that used to take long line-ups or almost hours to carry out before commencement of online banking. In this regard, more and more users now prefer their accounts to have online banking status, rather than conventional banking procedures. In the result, such a transfer of huge number of customers has consequently made banking industry more dependent on various tools of technology. From one perspective, this has been a blessing; however, from the analysis of various reports and studies (Ghosh, pp. 21-44, 2001), and especially from critic’s perspective, it is now becoming a barrier or limitation for banking industry due to its vulnerability against various loopholes and flaws (hidden from consumers) existing in the online banking and trading system. One of the major causes of gap between bankers and customers is due to utilisation of high-tech applications by online banking industry, whereas, majority of consumers consists of less savvy users in terms of technological understanding and knowledge. In this regard, this emerging gap is continuously attracting enormous number of criminals and crackers (SCN Education, pp. 37-48, 2001) that are benefiting from this breach of understanding and expectations, and thus, it has now become imperative that both stakeholders take effective steps to ensure security in the online banking industry. In this regard, it is essential that financial institutions should endeavor to provide awareness to their customers at the time of opening of online banking accounts. At the same time, customers should play a responsible role by fulfilling requirements of online banking, in order to minimise or eliminate the emerging gap that will somehow result in worst scenarios in the future. However, analysis (Felten & Gaw, pp. 44-55, 2006) of the end-user requirements has indicated that even in cases where both stakeholders put efforts, things seem to continue in the same way due to various factors. For instance, studies noted that user authentication is one of the most important components of online security, and online banking services are merely relying on it. In particular, in online banking, banks usually allow users to create their own unique passwords, and researchers identified that majority of the users had two or three similar passwords in their different banking accounts. The obvious reason is easiness in remembering lesser passwords, as one cannot memorise four or five unique passwords, and thus, it is an observation that users usually end up in having two or three similar passwords that increases the vulnerability, as well as the gap automatically (Felten & Gaw, pp. 44-55, 2006). In addition to user authentication, software updates (Cranor, pp. 76-80, 2005) is one of the major factors that has become another major reason of emerging gap between banks and consumers. In the documentation and agreements, most of the banks ask the customer to use updated versions of internet browsers; however, less tech-savvy users usually do not give much importance to such updates. On the other hand, users having updated browsers also become susceptible due to usage of various other software and applications, such as Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player, etc, easy targets of crackers and criminals (Watson, pp. 30-44, 2009). In this regard, the banking institutions are confronting huge difficulties in ensuring online security, and at the same time, there exist various factors that are causing infringes and breaches in the online banking industry. Aims and Objectives From such an understanding of existing gap between financial institutions and online banking users, it has now become very imperative that experts and professionals take efficient steps to analyse this gap in detail that will facilitate both stakeholders in eliminating the vulnerability that can cost huge financial losses. For this reason, the proposed research will include efforts of the researcher in finding and analysing the emerging gap that poses huge threats to the online banking industry. In particular, the researcher will put efforts to acquire the following aims and objectives: To identify the emerging gap between financial institutions and customers in the online banking industry To recognise factors that are causing such gap To analyse the role of banking institutions in augmentation/minimisation of this gap To analyse the role of customers in augmentation/minimisation of this gap To investigate the impact of identified gap on the effectiveness of online banking industry To propose recommendations/solutions for minimising the gap Research Statement In this regard, the proposed research will focus on the following purpose statement: “To identify and analyse the gap between requirements of online banking and expectations of consumers” Methodology & Data Analysis Besides identification of research statement, it has been an understanding that methodology plays an important role in achieving aims and objectives of the research. For this reason, the researcher has focused primarily in selecting the most appropriate methodology for the proposed research, as unsuitable strategies usually result in waste of time and efforts. From preliminary literature review, it is an observation that a huge number of experts and professionals have carried out researchers to analyse different aspects of online banking industry that will be very helpful for the researcher in carrying out the proposed research. For this reason, the researcher will put efforts to benefit from secondary research methodology (Babbie, pp. 34-49, 2000) by acquiring different studies and reports related to online banking, and especially regarding security issues in online banking industry, and analysing them in a critical manner. Brief review of the literature has indicated that books and journals are some of the best available options for identifying and analysing quality information related to the research statement. In addition, the researcher will endeavor to acquire any articles from magazines that will facilitate in understanding of the related issues from real scenarios. Moreover, internet has become one of the most effective platforms for carrying out secondary research methodology that will be one of the most important tools of researcher during the proposed study. Additionally, a number of organisations are offering academic journals and books in electronic form that will play a vital role in saving a lot of time during the proposed research. On the other hand, although internet offers enormous number of information, however, at the same time, it has invalid and incorrect information. For this reason, it will be very imperative to analyse the information critically with detailed identification of sources that will be one of the major considerations of the researcher. Although secondary research methodology (Babbie, pp. 34-49, 2000) will be the basis of the proposed research, and the researcher will be acquiring majority of information from books and journals, however, results of secondary research methodology will mostly be not in complete relation with the identified research statement. Thus, it will be imperative for researcher to utilise the primary research methodology as well that will be an efficient way of verifying and validating the acquired information from secondary methodology. In this regard, the researcher will be analysing online banking structures of two of the major banks of the United Kingdom, and will endeavor to analyse its documented guidelines, end-user security requirements, etc that will indicate the level of security the banks are providing. On the other hand, in order to identify and scrutinise the gap, the researcher will create a brief questionnaire for consumers of the banks that will include some of the following questions: Do you use online banking services? If yes, since when? Level of satisfaction from online banking services Level of fulfillment in terms of security of the services Have you read the end-user security requirements? If yes, have you fulfilled the requirements? Have you ever confronted any security-related issue in the online banking? In this regard, the questionnaire will enable the researcher in analysing the emerging gap from both financial institutions, as well as customers’ perspectives. In addition to secondary and primary research methodologies, it is an understanding that secondary methodology will be easy and unproblematic process due to availability and easy access to books and journals; however, at the same time, primary methodology will take most amount of the time during the research, but will be very valuable in adding critical perspective to the research. In other words, primary methodology will help the researcher in acquisition of data related particularly to the mentioned research statement and aims of the proposed research that will be the most imperative advantage of the primary research methodology. In brief, the proposed research will take an unprejudiced approach by utilising both primary and secondary research methodologies in a planned manner. Ethical Considerations In particular, the researcher will put efforts to be careful while fulfilling ethical obligations during the proposed research. In this regard, while analysing different banking institutions, the researcher will keep the personal information confidential to avoid any adverse consequences. In addition, the researcher understands the value of research, and thus, he will endeavor effortlessly to contribute effectively to the academic world. In specific, the researcher will respect perspectives of every participant during the research, and while interacting with the participants, the researcher will take appropriate care of confidentiality of their records, if come to know any. Moreover, the researcher will inform participants about the research statement and purpose of the study prior commencement of the primary research methodology. In brief, the researcher will put enormous efforts to pay attention to different ethical obligations during the study. Programme of Work # Task Name Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date 1 Literature Review 1st week 2 Submission of Research Proposal 2nd week 3 Secondary Research 3-4th week 4 Analysis of Data 5-7th week 5 Primary Research 8-10th week 6 Distribution of Questionnaires 11th week 7 Collection of Questionnaires 13th week 8 Analysis 14-16th week 9 Rough Draft of Dissertation 17-19th week 10 Final Submission 20th week References Azari, Rasool. 2003. Current Security Management & Ethical Issues of Information Technology. Idea Group. Babbie, E. 2000. The practice of social research, Wadsworth. Buzan, Barry. 1998. Security. Lynne Rienner Publishers. Cranor, Lorrie Faith. 2005. Security and Usability. O’Reilly Media, Inc. Dhillon, Gurpreet. 2001. Information Security Management. Idea Group. Felten, Edward W., Gaw, Shirley. 2006. “Password Management Strategies for Online Accounts.” Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, July 12-16, 2006, Pittsburgh, USA, pp. 44-55. Ghosh, Anup K. 2001. E-commerce Security and Privacy. Springer. Green, Gion & Fischer, Robert J. 2004. Introduction to Security. Butterworth-Heinemann. Gross, Joshua & Rosson, Mary Beth. 2007. “Looking for Trouble.’ CHIMIT’2007., pp. 1-10. Mannan, Mohammad. 2007. ‘Security and Usability.’ NSPW’2007, pp. 1-14. Mohay, George M. 2003. Computer and Intrusion Forensics. Artech House. O’Gara, John D. 2004. Corporate Fraud. John Wiley & Sons. Oyungerel, Padsuren. 2008. Online Banking. VDM Verlag. Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence. 2003. Security in Computing. Prentice Hall. SCN Education, B. V. 2001. Electronic Banking. Birkhauser. Watson, David L. 2009. Handbook of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. World Scientific. Yap, Alexander. 2006. “Evolution of Online Financial Trading Systems.” ACM SE’2006, pp. 440-445. Read More