The New Normal: Constant Flux

(This is a copy of my Loose Wire Sevice column, produced for newspapers and other print publications. Hence the lack of links.) I was reading a blog by a World Banker the other day—now there’s a phrase I wouldn’t have thought I’d use a few years ago—about our old favorite in this column: Twitter. Now … Read more

Hi, I’m Sheila from Phishers ‘R’ Us

It amuses me that banks talk about security but rarely apply it in a consistent enough way to save people like you and me from getting scammed. Take what just happened to me this morning: My bank rings me up (the number is a private number so doesn’t show up on my screen, but that … Read more

Dogbert Goes Phishing

It’s not on his homepage yet, but check out Friday’s Dilbert strip: it’s about phishing and does more than a 1,000 bank warning notices could do to show how it works and why folk are dumb to be taken in by it. An email lands on The Pointy Haired One’s screen, Dear Customer, This is … Read more

Snake Oil? Public Service? KMGI Responds

Yesterday I wrote about the odd press release from the Internet Security Foundation and the apparent conflict of interest between a foundation pointing out flaws in software (in this case, Windows) while at the same time promoting its own related software. Today I received a response from the founder of the company that registered the … Read more

Phishing Takes Its Toll

Is phishing beginning to take its toll on banks? It’s been my belief for some time that this is, or would be, the case. Banks have seen the Internet as a cash cow and have been over-eager to milk it without realising that it’s not just a way to grab more customers and slice overheads. … Read more