Is our money safe in any online account?

DEPOSITING money in an internet bank – which involves no counters, no tellers and no hard cash – is nothing less than an act of faith. People do it only because of an absolute assurance that their account is safe in the bank’s virtual hands.

But with the news that computer hackers have fleeced 20,000 users of Tesco Bank, online customers around the country must be wondering if that assurance means anything – and if their money will be next.

This was not your ordinary hack, where criminals access individual accounts by acquiring passwords through subterfuge. It was an unmitigated invasion, with the intruders apparently gaining entry to the whole system.

And if a catastrophic security breakdown like this can happen at Tesco, we must assume it can happen anywhere.

The problem is that since the 2008 financial crash (their own creation of course), banks have retreated from the High Street. In the relentless search for bigger profits, they have shed countless staff and moved rapidly to automation.

Doesn’t this scandal suggest the revolution may be moving too fast and with too few safeguards?

If consumers are to be reassured, the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England must get tougher. Fining banks for failing to protect data is well and good but more must be done to make sure all banks are spending enough time and resources making their security systems watertight.

Instead of spending millions on gimmicks like digital apps and bribes for switching accounts, they should focus on their single most important obligation – to keep our money safe.

If they can’t guarantee that, the integrity of the whole system is broken and internet banking is doomed.