Case Study: 1 Million Strong For Absa

In 2003, the South African bank Absa Group faced a big obstacle: It was the victim of one of the first major phishing attacks on Internet banking that the country had seen. Up to that point, account numbers and PINs had sufficed to safeguard customers' assets — but now both online banking in general and Absa in particular faced the loss of public confidence. To remedy the situation, Absa acted quickly and decisively, settling upon a multifaceted approach to Internet banking security that implemented mobile authentication and mandated its use by all of its banking customers. As a result, nearly 1 million South Africans now use the bank's mobile authentication solution — and 400,000 have crossed over to Absa's mobile banking offerings.