We can debate the issue of mobile banking adoption in the United States all day. Some people think it is exploding. Others think mobile banking is lagging as more people find Internet-banking satisfactory for their needs. But I think we can all agree that banks need to pay attention to mobile security issues, before the problem reaches epic proportions as it almost has in the online world.

It was big news not too long ago when S21sec reported that the infamous Zeus Trojan has been targeting mobile phones, aiming to steal passwords sent by banks to authenticate mobile transactions. That Zeus variant is now being called Mitmo, (for "Man in the Mobile"). Banks need to take this threat seriously.

So far there isn't a perfect solution to the always thorny problem of mobile security. "Mobile devices can be lost, the sender of an SMS/text message cannot truly be verified and trying to authenticate a transaction based on an IP address, as can be done via the online channel, is impossible," notes BankInfoSecurity.

The strong option here is to grapple with these issues now, bringing together banks, technology vendors, telecom firms and others to support wise initiatives. If not, we risk the same problem we're now experiencing in the online arena: The bad guys are able to stay up with the good buys--a lamentable situation.

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