Barclays fall into the trap of trying to position secure messaging as email

Finextra have lots of news today it seems.  This one caught my attention because its one of my own pet peeves going back 2 1/2 years when I referred to secure email as a fiction. 

Barclays chooses Kana messaging technology | Finextra

KANA Secure Messaging combines email management with secure Web portals and provides simple and effective secure customer communication through Web channels, delivering private communications without the need for encryption applications.

The reason its a fiction is that the various solutions all take the customer into a web page, that must be logged into, or require some additional software.  These solutions are all perfectly valid opportunities, but lets not call it email because it is not email.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Customers are already in online banking with a login and password.  Its a mistake to think that another login and password is required.  Simply build out the messaging capability within online banking, and you have a one stop shop for customers.  Companies such as Kana can accommodate that, so no need for ‘yet another login’.

4 thoughts on “Barclays fall into the trap of trying to position secure messaging as email

  1. I understand the “secure” part of secure messaging is about controlling how the messages are sent, viewed and confirming receipt, but once text is on the web, it’s never truly secure.

    Do people really want secure messaging?

  2. @Taylor – terrific question! Does it matter? Obviously some type of messaging is required inside online banking, but the Kana type solution sounds to me like a solution seeking a problem.

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