Nuts & Bolts PAYMENTS TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS CYBERSECURITY WORLD How does encryption work? Whether data is in storage or being beamed across the internet, the security expert's motto is " Encryption everywhere " to ensure that information is safe. But what exactly is it, and how does it protect customer data? By Adam Oxford H ow damaging to a community bank's reputation would it be if a visitor to its website encountered a " Not secure " warning? In an era where trust is hard to win and easy to lose, anything that puts doubt in the mind of potential customers is a dangerous thing. Yet, following an October update to its Chrome web browser (used for 54 percent of all US internet access), there's a chance that Google may be flagging your bank's homepage in this way. For years, the search giant has used a combination of warning pages and symbols in its browser to inform customers when they are sending information over connections that don't use the secure HTTPS protocol, which is indicated by a little padlock in your browser's address bar. (See sidebar, " Encryption decoded. " ) Until now, these independentbanker.org ICBA IndependentBanker 75http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.independentbanker.org&id=20402&adid=P75E1