Is this the End of Internet Banking?

darktrader

A work colleague recently said to me: “Being in IT I suppose you do all your banking online?” My answer seemed to surprise them. As it always seems to surprise people. “No. I do have Internet Banking but only on an Account I can access in other ways.”
Let me explain. I have Internet access to my bank account. I also have access to the account via a cheque book, a Visa Debit card. I can phone a branch or take money out via the “Hole-in-the-Wall” and even – how quaint – by visiting one of several Branches in the city where I live. What I do not have, never had and never will, is any account where my only access is via the Internet.
News reports late last week and over the weekend of Northern Rock customers unable to access their online accounts must have given everyone who transacts business over the Internet some concern. They may well understand the reason - massive demand. They may well believe that they, personally, will never be affected. But the fact remains, before our very eyes, we are seeing people “unable to get at their money.”
Every time I log on to my Account there is a link to an Internet Savings Account that pays a nice lot of interest. I can “easily and instantly” transfer funds between my Current Account and the Savings Account and I can apply online...Now. I can; but I won’t.
Part of my job you see is to understand Risk. And part of that understanding is to able to ask myself the question: “What if..?” So at work I need to have a pretty good idea of how to recover from a Server crash. Or what happens to the Managing Director’s critical data if his laptop is stolen. With my personal finances too. I ignore the “there is no risk” advice in all things because there is always risk. I need to understand that risk; and manage it. And because I understand how the Internet works; its relative “newness,” rapidity of uptake and, in my view, potential vulnerabilities, I use it as a tool for certain things. I use it widely, often and for many things. But I use it with caution.
Is this the end of Internet Banking? Probably not. But if the sight of Internet Banking customers unable to access their accounts for days on end gives others pause for thought, it is no bad thing.
Just starting asking yourself, “What if..?”

Idiophreak

...but as well as the web site suffering high demand, the phone lines were engaged and the stores were queuing around the block...

what's your point..?

yes, there's risk with banking online, but probably less so than banking over the phone or in a branch...and it's that much more convenient...

Online banking's only going to go from strength to strength, so you'd best get used to it.

I do think, however, that regulations need to be put in case, making sure all online banking systems are audited and fully load/penetration tested to make sure the infrastructure can cope with this kind of demand.

Badger_Lady

Northern Rock have little excuse for not having their website available to all users - I work in eCommerce myself and when a special offer is issued, for instance, the IT teams responsible are warned of extra load on the websites and contingencies are made.

If Northern Rock are able to open their branches for longer to deal with queues, they are also able to add bandwidth to their websites to allow greater levels of traffic.

The internet is not "new" any more (in this country) - "new media" no longer exists, and the channel should be just as reliable as any other.

I can see your point, OP, but remain unconvinced by any warnings that the internet banking channel will collapse.

Garnet_Gem

I have an internet only bank account and I must admit that I'm deciding whether to move all (not a lot but a lot to me) the money out to another account but will probably move some and leave some.

welshblob

Badger_Lady wrote: »

Northern Rock have little excuse for not having their website available to all users - I work in eCommerce myself and when a special offer is issued, for instance, the IT teams responsible are warned of extra load on the websites and contingencies are made.

If Northern Rock are able to open their branches for longer to deal with queues, they are also able to add bandwidth to their websites to allow greater levels of traffic.

Who says it's just a bandwidth issue. The system will have been designed to cope with a certain level of concurrent access whether that be bandwidth or server capacity and clearly that has been exceeded. Of course they could have designed a system to cope with concurrent access for every one of their customers but then that would have been expensive and the costs would have been paid for by their customers, or lack of because they might not have been competative anymore. I'm sure if other websites have unexpected demand in the region that NR has experienced then they would be in a similar situation.
Rob

StevieJ

darktrader wrote: »

A work colleague recently said to me: “Being in IT I suppose you do all your banking online?” My answer seemed to surprise them. As it always seems to surprise people. “No. I do have Internet Banking but only on an Account I can access in other ways.”
Let me explain. I have Internet access to my bank account. I also have access to the account via a cheque book, a Visa Debit card. I can phone a branch or take money out via the “Hole-in-the-Wall” and even – how quaint – by visiting one of several Branches in the city where I live. What I do not have, never had and never will, is any account where my only access is via the Internet.
News reports late last week and over the weekend of Northern Rock customers unable to access their online accounts must have given everyone who transacts business over the Internet some concern. They may well understand the reason - massive demand. They may well believe that they, personally, will never be affected. But the fact remains, before our very eyes, we are seeing people “unable to get at their money.”
Every time I log on to my Account there is a link to an Internet Savings Account that pays a nice lot of interest. I can “easily and instantly” transfer funds between my Current Account and the Savings Account and I can apply online...Now. I can; but I won’t.
Part of my job you see is to understand Risk. And part of that understanding is to able to ask myself the question: “What if..?” So at work I need to have a pretty good idea of how to recover from a Server crash. Or what happens to the Managing Director’s critical data if his laptop is stolen. With my personal finances too. I ignore the “there is no risk” advice in all things because there is always risk. I need to understand that risk; and manage it. And because I understand how the Internet works; its relative “newness,” rapidity of uptake and, in my view, potential vulnerabilities, I use it as a tool for certain things. I use it widely, often and for many things. But I use it with caution.
Is this the end of Internet Banking? Probably not. But if the sight of Internet Banking customers unable to access their accounts for days on end gives others pause for thought, it is no bad thing.
Just starting asking yourself, “What if..?”

Surely it is as simple as allowing all internet customers to have the option of access via a branch, if the customer deems that to be the best option at any particular time.

esq

welshblob wrote: »

I'm sure if other websites have unexpected demand in the region that NR has experienced then they would be in a similar situation.

Far too much rationale, far too little drama.

Flynn_2

Badger_Lady wrote: »

I work in eCommerce myself ... If Northern Rock are able to open their branches for longer to deal with queues, they are also able to add bandwidth to their websites to allow greater levels of traffic.

If you work in eCommerce then you should understand that it's nothing to do with bandwidth. It's to do with the limitations of the actual database servers.

I run a very busy website that is driven by a database. Our server can handle hundreds of users at once but if queries to the database arrive faster than the server can deal with them they just pile up. Interrogating a database is a very server intensive operation. When the load reaches a predermined level users see a "server busy" notice until the server can catch up. If we didn't do that the server would eventually crash. When the load goes down then the server then accepts more queries.

If you don't understand then I'm sure one of your IT bods will explain.

.

welshblob

esq wrote: »

Far too much rationale, far too little drama.

lol, sorry I should have added the odd PANIC!!! and CRISIS!!! in there.

Idiophreak

Badger_Lady wrote: »

when a special offer is issued, for instance, the IT teams responsible are warned of extra load on the websites and contingencies are made.

I don't think Northern Rock are viewing this as a special offer, somehow

I don't think anybody expected so many people to freak out over this, so they really couldn't have anticipated the amount of traffic they've been dealing with...

Even if they're trying to catch up with the load, as others have said, it isn't just a case of flicking a couple of switches - they'll have to get hold of new boxes, get the appropriate code put on them, change the way the load's balanced across the system...it's going to take time...

Liz_the_Whizz

I must admit that the Northern Wreck shambles did make me pause for thought about internet banking.

Having as I do several internet access accounts with different providers offers some protection - unless the whole banking sector were to go into simultaneous meltdown:rolleyes: .

But more realistic would be access problems due to a glitch with our own PC or internet provider.

So it's not a bad time to have a quick audit of how you would access your accounts if the internet was not an option.