Charity bank pulls online services over security fears

CAF Bank, which serves 14,000 charities, has suspended online banking as it fixes a vulnerability in how third-party software connects to its portal. The outage has left some organizations struggling to run payroll after being cut from their accounts. In a message to customers, seen by The Register, the Charities Aid …

[Cessquill]

"The bank later apologized to customers experiencing difficulties with the service."

Surely a UK bank would apologise, no?

[IGotOut]

Re: "The bank later apologized to customers experiencing difficulties with the service."

No.

A UK (actually most)bank would leave the security hole open, get raided then say "A small number of accounts may have been accessed. We take security...."

[Cessquill]

Re: "The bank later apologized to customers experiencing difficulties with the service."

Sorry, wasn't clear - I meant the English UK spelling of apologise, not what the article used.

[Andy The Hat]

Re: "The bank later apologized to customers experiencing difficulties with the service."

"I meant the English UK spelling of apologise ..."

Would that be with the German pronunciation eg "many apple-o-geys for the inconweenyence ..."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "The bank later apologized to customers experiencing difficulties with the service."

It's Oxford English Dictionary spelling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling

[Taliesinawen]

The technology: not fit for purpose?

> CAF Bank, which serves 14,000 charities ..

I've come to the conclusion that the best way of getting paid huge salaries for doing nothing but sitting in a warm room is to start your own charity /s

> has suspended online banking as it fixes a vulnerability in how third-party software connects to its portal.

What is the name of this third-party software ?

> Last year, CAF Bank came under fire from customers who were unable to log in or make transactions

I've come to the conclusion that this “technology” is not fit for purpose. I mean when you buy a car, you don't have to strip it down and test each-and-every component for defects. And when you inform the manufacturer they respond with - thanks, we'll fix it in the next version :o

[PCScreenOnly]

Re: The technology: not fit for purpose?

Might be a good idea with some car makers and their engines (ford, range rover), it software (VW)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The technology: not fit for purpose?

VW did it on purpose, not by accident. Huge difference.

[Graham Cobb]

Re: The technology: not fit for purpose?

The sorts of charities who have people like that do NOT use CAF Bank. In my experience, CAF provides banking for many, many small charities, often locally focused, with a small number of people doing all sorts of good works.

[Roland6]

Re: The technology: not fit for purpose?

>” What is the name of this third-party software ?”

Quickbooks and any other package being used for accounts and running payroll and directly instructing the bank to make payments.

Given CAF Bank are using an off-the-shelf banking platform, other users of this platform may also have the same vulnerability….

[TheSnarkWasABoojum]

> Last year, CAF Bank came under fire from customers who were unable to log in or make transactions

Yep - and it's still an absolute car-crash of a platform:

- Click back in the browser: you're logged out.

- Put a comma in the description of an external payment: CSV exports of transactions are messed up by the comma!

- Search functionality for finding external payees? Broken.

The Co-Operative bank uses the same platform.

For the business and charity I'm involved with, we're moving away from the Co-Operative bank and the CAF bank as this online banking platform is definitely not fit for purpose.

[Roland6]

>For the business and charity I'm involved with, we're moving away from the Co-Operative bank and the CAF bank as this online banking platform is definitely not fit for purpose.

But it is an improvement on the old platform, just not as big as we would like it to have been...

[TchmilFan]

Asking for a friend - to which bank?

[david 12]

CAF was "Charities’ Bank of the Year at the Charity Times Awards" in 2021. How many Charities Banks are there in the UK?