In Focus Risk


Back to basics: a bit of better late than never?


A thought-experiment of what it might mean to roll back to an earlier age of payments


Arthur Kaufman Independent writer and speaker arthur35art@hotmail.co.uk


Good evening members of the public. On behalf of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, I am making this special broadcast about money and how it is transmitted electronically, whether spent, borrowed, saved, invested, or used by millions in their day-to-day shopping, including online purchases. Mostly, this takes places without serious


or minor snags. However, you may be aware that we live in an age where criminals will try to ‘hack’ into your financial transactions to steal – yes, I said to ‘steal’ – what is rightfully yours, namely, that which you have earned by hard work, and your savings put where you think of as a safe place.


No signs of abating Unfortunately, such crime is on the increase, with no signs of abating, but I do not want to bore you with statistics except to say that any figure I could mention would most likely be a gross under-estimate, since many of the victims of such hacking, perhaps even yourself or someone you know, who will have chosen not to report their loss as they would if it was a ‘normal’ crime, like burglary or being mugged when simply out walking. In some instances, the hacking has been


so bad that there has been a return to using old-fashioned manual typewriters in order to remain solvent. While such vintage technology seems


awkward, slow, and unnecessarily time consuming, it could be ‘cheap’ at the price when compared with being plundered online, especially if the full cost of installing,


40


Mostly, this takes places without serious or minor snags. However, you may be aware that we live in an age where criminals will try to ‘hack’ into your financial transactions to steal – yes, I said to ‘steal’ – what is rightfully yours, namely, that which you have earned by hard work, and your savings put where you think of as a safe place


in maintaining, and forever having to update protective software is taken into account. If these ‘normal’ crimes were not bad


enough, too many of us, when using PCs, inadvertently or voluntarily, disclose details of our current accounts instead of checking, deleting, or blocking what appear to be genuine e-mail messages with offers too good to be true. Those taken in by such ploys are often too embarrassed to admit they have provided hackers with easy access to their financial holdings. Businesses too are vulnerable to hacking, including when the totals lost are estimated to be in the billions of pounds. The problem here is not limited to the immense amounts stolen and the harm


www.CCRMagazine.com


done to the nation's economy, since there may also be unlawful access to private details held on a firm's clients or customers, the disclosure of which then leaves thousands if not millions, open to being hacked in turn, thereby giving faceless criminals multiple ‘bites at lots of other people's cherries’. Even banks, with their high-tech security


procedures, are not immune, especially if their software is not up to date or is inadequately employed. And, as in the case of individuals, such


institutions, along with large firms harbouring household names, and with reputations at stake, may be reluctant to admit that they, or any of their customers, have suffered substantial losses at the brain power of ‘soft’ criminality, often one – or even more than one – step ahead in designing software for ill-gotten, but highly lucrative, tax-free gains.


Proposals As a result, the government, following consultation with a wide range of expert opinion on internet operations, including former hackers, has been advised that there are only about seven to 10 years left before internet-based crime will have very serious, if not irreversible, fiscal effects on both individuals and corporate bodies, the level of which will be significantly worse than the repercussions of the financial crises in 2007 and 2008, something I am sure most of you need no reminding about. It is, therefore, important that a number


of steps be undertaken, as soon as possible, in order to reduce what is becoming total reliance and dependence on internet-based


March 2019


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52