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In this digital age, it's no surprise that you can now conduct most of your banking transactions online. In fact, a fast-growing amount of people are starting to utilize online banking and it has become a huge trend in the tech and banking industries.

However, just like your brick-and-mortar bank with a super-secure vault, online banks can be robbed. Instead of cracking a safe though, a hacker can run off with your money by just clicking a few buttons and hitting a few keys on their keyboard.

To address the growing concerns regarding online banking, banks and credit unions have a number of policies to keep online customer accounts secure. Standard measures include using firewalls, anti-virus protection on bank computers, fraud monitoring, and website encryption, which scrambles data so only the intended recipient can read it. If you participate in online banking, chances are your financial institution employs these security measures already.

Is online banking already safe?

Online banking is only safe when proper security measures are put in place on the back end by the financial institution and when a customer on the front end also does his or her part to keep the account secure. Yup, that's right. YOU have responsibilities to fulfill as well, and without your cooperation, banks can only do so much to keep your money safe.

Large-scale data breaches often show up in the headlines, but many criminals also work on a smaller scale by attacking consumers directly. For example, fraudsters often use so-called phishing scams, in which they send out emails pretending to represent a financial institution in the hopes of hooking an unsuspecting consumer.

The email might suggest there’s a problem with your account and ask for your bank password or Social Security number. Other examples might say you won $100 million, but your account information is needed to wire the funds. If you reply, the criminal could use the information to illegally make purchases or withdraw money from your account. So bottom-line, don’t respond to emails that are too good (or bad) to be true.

Ways to protect yourself

Skip public Wi-Fi for private banking

A public network is just what its name implies, public. This means anyone can see what you are doing online unless each page you visit is encrypted and I doubt that is the case. The security of your private home network is ideal. If you have to log in while away from home, consider using your cellular data plan instead of Wi-Fi, or a virtual private network known as a VPN. Regardless of how you go online, check for web page encryption by making sure the address on the browser starts with “HTTPS.” The “s” signals that the page is secure.