By John Leyden
The Register
26th October 2009
RSA Europe 2009 - Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who bankrupted a bank before it became fashionable, said that unless the quality of regulation improves, further financial disasters such as the Barings Bank collapse he precipitated are inevitable.
Leeson, told journalists at the RSA Europe conference on Thursday that little has changed in the 14 years since his actions resulted in losses in excess of 827m ($1.3bn) and the collapse of Barings in 1995. He told delegates that fraud management systems with appropriate knowledge-based rules are the only way to expose the cavalier risk taking he carried out during three years at Barings.
Better regulation - not tighter or looser regulation - was needed, Leeson argued.
As an ambitious 25-year-old, Lesson travelled over to Singapore in 1992 to establish a business for Barings in the futures and derivatives market. Early successes were soon replaced by losses which Leeson disguised by pushing losses into an error account (called 88888). He covered these losses by obtaining an overdraft, with daily funds from London keeping the bank afloat as the losses and overdraft swelled. It was only when other banks called in the debt that the situation collapsed.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Guardian job website hit by hackers
By Warwick Ashford
ComputerWeekly.com
26 Oct 2009
The Guardian has notified around 500,000 users of its UK jobs website that their personal details may have been compromised in a hacker attack.
Users have been advised to take precautionary measures including contacting a credit reference agency and the UK fraud prevention service Cifas to ensure their information is not being used.
The Guardian claims in reports that the "sophisticated and deliberate hack" was stopped while still in progress.
According to a security notice posted on the Guardian jobs website, administrators of the site have identified how the site was hacked and has taken steps to prevent a recurrence.
No technical details have been released because these are part of the investigation being conducted by the central e-crime unit at Scotland yard, a spokesman said.
ComputerWeekly.com
26 Oct 2009
The Guardian has notified around 500,000 users of its UK jobs website that their personal details may have been compromised in a hacker attack.
Users have been advised to take precautionary measures including contacting a credit reference agency and the UK fraud prevention service Cifas to ensure their information is not being used.
The Guardian claims in reports that the "sophisticated and deliberate hack" was stopped while still in progress.
According to a security notice posted on the Guardian jobs website, administrators of the site have identified how the site was hacked and has taken steps to prevent a recurrence.
No technical details have been released because these are part of the investigation being conducted by the central e-crime unit at Scotland yard, a spokesman said.
Socialite Charged with Hacking Voice Mail
The Early Show
Oct. 21, 2009
(CBS) - Most of us carry a cell phone to stay in touch. But, as CBS News Science and Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg reports, you might be surprised to learn just how easy it is to violate your privacy or even trick you.
A high-profile publicist is accused of hacking into the voice mail of some other women, including one who dated her ex-boyfriend.
Former Dolce & Gabbana publicist Ali Wise is accused of hacking into the voice mail of a romantic rival after the woman started dating Wise's ex-boyfriend.
Wise used free software called "SpoofCard" to gain access to the voice mails. The program also lets you disguise your voice and make it appear as though you're calling from a different number.
Wise's lawyer, Ed Kratt, told CBS: "SpoofCard is readily available on the Internet to anybody who wants to use it. One of the issues is whether Ali realized what she was doing was unlawful and the answer to that is clearly she did not."
Oct. 21, 2009
(CBS) - Most of us carry a cell phone to stay in touch. But, as CBS News Science and Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg reports, you might be surprised to learn just how easy it is to violate your privacy or even trick you.
A high-profile publicist is accused of hacking into the voice mail of some other women, including one who dated her ex-boyfriend.
Former Dolce & Gabbana publicist Ali Wise is accused of hacking into the voice mail of a romantic rival after the woman started dating Wise's ex-boyfriend.
Wise used free software called "SpoofCard" to gain access to the voice mails. The program also lets you disguise your voice and make it appear as though you're calling from a different number.
Wise's lawyer, Ed Kratt, told CBS: "SpoofCard is readily available on the Internet to anybody who wants to use it. One of the issues is whether Ali realized what she was doing was unlawful and the answer to that is clearly she did not."
Military`s Intranet Vulnerable to NK Hacking
The Dong-A Ilbo
OCTOBER 24, 2009
The military's intranet is vulnerable to attacks by North Korean hackers, a lawmaker from a minor party said yesterday.
Rep. Lee Jin-sam of the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party said, "North Korean hackers attacked our military's intranet in the Ulchi Freedom Guardian in August after the Defense Security Command warned troops of hacker attacks in advance."
"As a result, part of major intranets of the Air Force and Navy were frozen for several hours, and important data, including more than 1,000 cases of intelligence and grade 2 classified data, were leaked."
Lee was speaking at the annual parliamentary inspection of the Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Computer failure paralyses Swiss ministries
The Times of India
26 October 2009
GENEVA: Complicated computer problems at key Swiss government ministries have paralysed work at several offices since Friday, a government spokesperson said.
The foreign ministry was hardest hit by the information systems failure and likely will face severe computer restrictions Monday.
The finance and interior ministries will fare better and be back at work when the week starts, Karolina Kohout, a spokeswoman for the Federal Office of Information Technology told the Swiss News Agency Sunday.
Speculation is rife in the Swiss media that the problems were brought on by a hacker. The errors were first noticed Friday. The government has not commented on those reports.
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