Trust the technology

“RBTT’s Financial Group’s informational website was hacked on Tuesday, head of
its Group Corporate Communications, Paul Charles, confirmed yesterday.

Charles, in a statement issued to the Express, said: “On Tuesday
October 3, between 9 and 10 p.m., there was a breach of RBTT’s informational
website, which is hosted by an independent service provider in Miami, Florida.”

He stressed that the affected system is purely informational and is in no way linked to RBTT’s business banking systems which are “shielded by state-of-the-art technology -there has been no compromise or breach of any of RBTT’s banking systems”.

“We are instituting appropriate safeguards to avoid recurrence,” he ended.”

This was a serious, corporate crisis, and naturally questions about the security of online banking and customer information arose. In a country where a significant percentage of the population has not embraced Internet banking, such a crisis counteracts any attempt to encourage customers to online bank facilities. Meanwhile, for the serious, Internet-using banker, online security and information confidentiality are major concerns. Such a crisis affects customer perceptions of RBTT not just in Trinidad and Tobago, but also those of customers in the other Caribbean islands in which it operates.

The Bank’s attempt to separate the informational website from customer information is not an entirely persuasive effort, since most people are not familiar with the construction, maintenance and safety systems for websites (especially those used for financial purposes). To the average person, the key message that strikes them upon reading the article is that security has been breached. But really, apart from superficially addressing the issue, what is RBTT doing? The public relations strategy would be to reinforce the fact that RBTT takes online security seriously, and that in addition to investigating how the website was breached, RBTT has assessed and enhanced its security system. Additionally, it should explain the difference (as opposed to just saying there’s a difference) between someone hacking into the “informational” website and the bank’s actual, customer and records database. A website designer I spoke to said, if a hacker’s good and they’ve hacked into the informational site, then chances are they can hack into the Bank’s financial system. I’m no webmaster so although RBTT has sought to stress “don’t worry”, questions still abound. In the online comments section to the Trinidad Express article, one reader wrote:

“I understand that the systems are different but if you can’t secure your website what can we trust you to secure?”

Perhaps the average Joe hasn’t even noticed the article, but for the business-minded person who banks with RBTT (and doesn’t bank with RBTT), and who scours the newspapers for business issues, such an article may not have escaped his or her notice. I suspect RBTT’s strategy would be to not highlight the crisis. Hence, their limited mass response (a press release). Companies often feel the need to lay low, adopting the outlook that the crisis would blow over. But is that THE remedy? Or should we mix the approach of being low-key and directly addressing the issue? How do we mix addressing the issue directly so that people have a better understanding of online security, which could help reduce their fears about such an incident?

RBTT is working assiduously to remedy any breach opportunities for hackers, and assessing what damage the hacker may have done to its system. Backed by significantly upgrading its security and executing a campaign to reinforce faith in its online services, RBTT could simultaneously execute a campaign that educates people about online banking, the opportunities, and how online security can be maintained. After such a breach of security, trust in technology may be low, but trust in technology should be a communication objective, especially since the upcoming crop of young professionals and teens are more Internet-oriented and embracing than the generation before, and could embrace online banking.