Elitism’s Big Security Hole
You would expect that if you choose an elite, premium product or service that it was more secure than its lesser, bog standard one. But after an incident today I’m not so sure. I happen to have a fancy...
View ArticlePumping Stock, Spam and the Criminal Underworld
If you ever feel the urge to trade on a spam stock tip, I offer this unsolved whodunnit as a cautionary tale. If you’ve been getting an extra dumpster of spam in your inbox lately, it’s probably...
View ArticleGoertzel, Rugby and the Sweet-talking Scam
The South China Morning Post reports (I’ve got the hard copy here; everything there is behind a subscription wall, so no full link I’m afraid) of a clever scam where the bad guys steal just enough...
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Poffertjes and Power
Continuing my search for a place to plug in and work at airports, I was pleasantly surprised to find that HSBC has laid out the red carpet for its Premier account holders, at least at Jakarta’s...
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The Financial Crisis in Charts
Thought I’d offer a brief history of the financial crisis as seen through Google Insights, which measures the popularity of a search term over time. Interest in the word subprime spiked a couple of...
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The Financial Crisis in Charts
Thought I’d offer a brief history of the financial crisis as seen through Google Insights, which measures the popularity of a search term over time. Interest in the word subprime spiked a couple of...
View ArticleThe Lost World of Yahoo
This piece was written for a commentary on the BBC World Service Business Daily about Jerry Yang’s decision to resign as CEO. Back in the early days of the World Wide Web there was really only one...
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Another Online Banking Hole
(Update: corrected a few things. You can’t see the person’s bank account number. But you can see anyone’s phone bill, whether or not they’re a customer of that bank.) — Here’s a hole in Internet...
View ArticleHSBC “Rgerts to Onform”
I’m always amazed at how much money companies sink into sparkling advertising and PR, but so little into ensuring the emails their staff send and receive reflect the same sheen. Especially when they...
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Why Banks Make It Harder To Play Safe
This just landed in my inbox: more proof, if it were needed, that banks are dumber than a sack of nails when it comes to security. Or they just don’t care: The email comes ostensibly from HSBC’s...
View ArticlePhishy Behaviour Down Under
I don’t really need to introduce this piece from Sam Varghese of the Sydney Morning Herald. It touches on a theme I’ve harped on before: How banks still don’t understand phishing and how it has changed...
View ArticlePhishing Pushes Banking To Impose Transfer Limits
Internet banking takes another knock with news from AP that Germany’s biggest retail bank Postbank has imposed an online transaction limit . Germany’s biggest retail bank, Postbank, said Monday it was...
View ArticlePhishers Force UK Banks To Delay Transfers
Another sign that phishing is taking its toll on the quality of service banks can offer online customers: The Times reports that UK banks are introducing delays in intra-bank payments to try to combat...
View ArticleBanks To Customers: You Have To Pay For Phishing
Good article in Australia’s BRW Magazine about phishing and banks. It makes some important points, not least that banks are still trying to talk down the problem while at the same time passing costs...
View ArticleThe Fate Of The Home Productivity Suite
I was asked by a PR firm on behalf of Corel to give my thoughts about office productiviy suites used in the home. I don’t always do that sort of thing, but I thought why not turn it into a blog...
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How Long Did The ‘Biggest Data Theft In History’ Go Unreported?
I continue to be intrigued, but somewhat perplexed, by the CardSystems security breach that happened nearly two months ago now. Who knew it first, and who told who, and when? And why did it take so...
View ArticleForward Looking or Tired and Reactionary? Welcome to the Faux Community Site
You’re familiar with the faux blog — a blog launched by a marketing company to look like a grassroots blog to promote a product, but actually maintained by PR drones. Naff is probably the word that...
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Cash With a Human Face
Here’s a useful innovation for foiling scammers stealing money from ATMs with their heads covered to avoid identification: a system which “can distinguish between someone whose face is covered or...
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