Put 'em behind bars!!

I seriously hope that the

I seriously hope that the "Al Qaeda" comment was a joke. It's just rediculous. Conspiracy theories apart, banks and financial institutions are legally obliged to offer secure services to their clients. Think of it this way, if four masked men hold up your bank and run off with 2 million dollars, will it be cause enough for alarm to make you withdraw your money and change bank? No, so why would computer fraud? If anything the fingerprints are easier to find.

One possible improvement on security on the internet in general that I would suggest lies at the basis. More control on the sale / resale of domain names and IP address. In many cases (and in this case) the theifs redirect the users to a site under their control and request sensitive information. Who owns this site? Who owns the IP address? These should be the people responsible. But it usually ends up pointing to the CEO of some multi-national company. Later discovered to be a false registration. I think register.com and the like have quite a few questions to answer.

Banks and other financial

Banks and other financial institutions have a responsibility to protect their customers personal information from unauthorized access or abuse. The problem is most of these businesses are comfortable with lax controls and policies and have not been held publicly liable for their negligence.

But if customers are made aware of these lax controls they will demand data security best practices and start doing business with companies that can readily demonstrate due diligence.

Message to Consumers: VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLARS! Only do business with companies that care for your personal information as if it were their own. Ask for a copy of their data security policy. If they don't have one, insist they get one in place or possibly lose you as a customer. It works!

Message to CEOs, CIOs and Business Owners: Data security is not just for the IT department, it's EVERYBODY'S JOB. Be proactive about your data security posture or face lawsuits over a security breach that could have been avoided or at least minimized damage. Your competitors who DO employ data security best practices will eventually take your customers.

Message to Media: Don't be afraid to tell the public how important data security due diligence is for businesses and government agencies to practice.

Somebody cut me off in

Somebody cut me off in traffic today. At the moment, I wanted to have them carted off and thrown under the jail for inconveniencing me. However, other than a slight adrenaline rush- there was no damage.
And as in my case, you suffered no real damage.
You are probably better off than you were in that you are actually monitoring your transactions with all of your financial institutions in a more diligent manner.
You just received a 'wake-up' call. And, your bank suffered the loss.
Welcome to the real world.
Remember, "time wounds all heels'.
Eventually they will get caught.
Life is easier when YOU don't have to punish ALL the evil-doers!!!!!
Let your bank get 'em...............

The perfect crime? Maybe.

The perfect crime? Maybe.

A threat to the US economy? I doubt it.

Let's assume, for the moment, that all the accounts compromised belinged to one bank (which they did not). For sake of argument, let's assume that it is Bank of America. In 2005, BofA reported revenues of 57 billion dollars and assets of 1.3 trillion (their 2005 financial report is on their Web site).

If every one of those 1 million accounts got hit for a thousand bucks, as you did, BofA would lose a billion dollars -- a noticeable amount, I'm sure, but hardly enough to destabilize the financial infrastructure of the United States.

Bottom line? Stealing modest sums from a lot of consumer accounts would probably harm the banking system by destroying consumer confidence -- but I don't think the actual financial loss would be unbearable to the financial institutions.