Gartner, too, have been very vocal in terms of the security procedures associated with Internet banking through handheld devices.

Last year analyst Graham Taylor released a paper titled "Banking on Mobile Platforms: Proceed with Caution" which advised banks to delay m-commerce plans as late as 2008. He said the delay in rolling out mobile banking initiatives is necessary to educate new users.

Most of the current mobile-phone specific malicious code acts either as a premium dialer (diverting calls to premium services numbers), "bluetoothing" contact lists to other bluetooth-enabled phones, or wiping out certain applications. No code exists yet with the potential to capture keystrokes or hijack banking sessions.

However, Neal Wise, director of security firm Assurance Pty Ltd. isn't too alarmed at this stage. Wise said most mobile phone viruses, so far, have been proof-of-concept and the idea they could act as keystroke loggers is a bit far fetched.

Wise cited Apple Inc.'s iPhone as one example, pointing out that with more functionality comes more risk.