Security company iovation and CEB'sTowerGroup announced Aug. 13 that 20% of all online financialtransactions are performed on a mobile device. That figure is upfrom just 11% in 2012.

In 2011, per iovation's numbers, mobile amounted to just 2% offinancial services transactions.

“Banks are aggressively innovating for their mobile apps rightnow, competing for market share and customer retention,” saidiovation Vice President, Global Sales Max Anhoury in astatement.

That rise in mobile market share has triggered significant, newsecurity concerns, according to iovation.

“We found that financial institutions are not able to integratesecurity protocols as quickly as they would like since the 'old'security measures may not be well suited for the 'new' mobileworld. This means that mobile transactions can be like the WildWest for fraudsters,” Anhoury said.

In an interview, iovation Chief Technology Officer Scott Waddellsaid the mobile platform is proving cumbersome for fraudsters, butthey nonetheless are increasingly focused on it. He added thatcriminals are increasingly using mobile devices to lure users intorevealing their log in credentials so they can facilitate accounttakeovers.

Waddell also said that up until now most financial institutionshave not used mobile devices to improve account security—intwo-factor authentication, for instance. But, he said, there ismovement by financial institutions to attempt to harness mobile asa security tool.

“More financial institutions are showing an interest in smarttwo-factor authentication,” he said.