This was just a test , , ,
had this been a serious hack, the retirement account you worked forty years to accumulate would have gone missing.
Actually, I'm fairly confident that financial institutions have multiple off line back-ups and procedures to ensure that they are never connected to the outside world. So your funds might only be temporarily missing. I'm still concerned about the economic and social impact that would result from a major financial institution being taken down temporarily the way British Airways not long ago.
Security through obscurity would be all well and good, if it weren't for the fine print in those one-sided service agreements we're all forced to accept stating that, not withstanding any gilt-edged guarantees elsewhere, you, the customer, are responsible for security, including maintaining local off-line backups to secure your own data.
Several days ago I had occasion to visit a community help blog. In the process I noticed something that was both gratifying and disturbing. It's one thing for an old retired fossil like meself to complain that the technology is fundamentally broken and not working properly. It's another thing when the youngsters who still have to make their living using it start having similar reactions.
One fellow summarized it eloquently. "We need context. We can see what the system is doing, but we don't have any visibility of how it's doing it." Gratifying to find that it's not just creeping senility and that I'm not alone. Disturbing to reflect on the implications for information security.
Regarding which, every time another successful hack is reported it reminds me of the classic Monty Python "Cheese Shop" bit. "You've got no bloody cheese at all, then 'ave you?!!!"
For what it's worth.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
