German officials barred from using BlackBerries and iPhones

Government Ministers in Germany have been advised by the government to discard BlackBerry and iPhone smartphones because of “a dramatic increase of attacks against” its networks. Besides this, a number of German ministries are considering a general ban on the use of smartphones, as confirmed by Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.

He said that ministers and senior civil servants had been told to use the Simko2 gadgets offered by T-Systems instead, following advice from the German federal office for information security (BSI).

Germany is concerned over the fact that the data for the BlackBerry smartphone passes through two Research in Motion centers in the UK and Canada.

De Maizière added that there was a possible risk of “political IT attacks” from organised crime and foreign intelligence agencies and said that such harm to the government could increase with the use of the BlackBerry and other smartphones.

"The BlackBerry infrastructure is a closed proprietary system. [But] the access standard to our networks must be determined by the government and not by a private company," he said.

Payment Innovations after the financial crisis

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago recently hosted its tenth annual Payments Conference. This year’s theme was “Payment Innovations in the Wake of the Financial Crisis” and its focus was emerging trends within the payments industry and new regulation following the financial upheavals of the past two years.

The participants at this year’s Payments Conference discussed how evolving technology and emerging payment products both challenge and complement legacy payments while providing opportunities for nonbank firms to compete against and collaborate with traditional payment providers—like large financial institutions and card networks. Moreover, given the flurry of recent legislation affecting the payments industry, the conference also addressed the legislation’s policy implications.

Katy Jacob and Anna Lunn discuss the conference in the latest edition of the “Chicago Fed Letter” which you can download HERE.

Reserve Bank of India is concerned that electronic transfer guidelines are being ignored

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has expressed serious concerns over complaints regarding delays in affording credits as well as the return of transaction. The RBI in a circular to participants has urged participants in electronic transfer system to strictly adhere to RBI guidelines. The services involved are the various electronic payment products like Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), National Electronic Clearing Service (NECS) and Electronic Clearing Service (ECS). Member banks were also found not to be paying the required interest for delayed credits to beneficiaries’ accounts as provided for in the Procedural Guidelines. The RBI said that ‘this results in inconvenience to customers and loss of credibility in the system and adversely impact the growth of electronic payment systems in the country.

RBI said various electronic transfer systems have been growing in terms of acceptability and coverage and for increasing the pace of migration, it was essential that the credibility of the electronic payment systems was upheld and member banks using the products strictly comply with the procedural guidelines and circulars instructions issued by RBI from time to time, in both letter and spirit.

“Keeping in view the seriousness of the issue and to ensure proper and efficient management of these systems, all member banks participating in the electronic payment systems viz, RTGS, NEFT, NECS and ECS variants are advised to strictly adhere to the various provisions contained in the respective Procedural Guidelines as also instructions / circulars / guidelines issued by the RBI from time to time, while handling electronic payment system products” RBI said warning that any violation of these guidelines would attract the punitive consequences as envisaged in the relevant laws.

Stole e-banking details from laptop – repairman gets 9 months in jail

A laptop repairman who was caught on camera trying to hack into the bank account of an undercover Sky News reporter after stealing login details from her machine, has been sentenced to nine months in jail.

Grzegorz Zachodni was caught in a UK Sky News sting operation into London based computer repair shops. The Sky News reporter took a laptop with a minor fault to various outlets.

A large number of personal photos of the reporter were placed on the laptop, including images of her in her underwear and bikini, along with log-in details to eBay, Facebook and NatWest online banking.

Unknown to the shop staff, the machine also had secret software installed on it which recorded all files looked at and all Webs sites visited as well as images from the computer's webcam.

Using this, it was established that during the 20 minutes he worked on the laptop, Zachodni looked at a large number of the victim's photographs as well as files marked "private" containing her log in details for Facebook, eBay and NatWest online banking.

Zachodni was recorded on the webcam removing an external USB drive from around his neck and using it to save private files containing the reporter's passwords and log in details as well as two photographs of her in a bikini.

He then made six attempts to log in to the reporter's online banking account using the details from the private files on the laptop.

Sky New passed on details of its enquiry to police and the suspect was subsequently arrested. He pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and received a nine month jail term.

You can watch the original Sky News report HERE.

TRAINING COURSE - INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS

Johannesburg, South Africa, 15 & 16 November 2010

This is an intensive 2-day primer for payments professionals on International Payments. This course has been tailored for payment professionals, either in commerce or banking who need to gain a closer understanding of International Payments.

The course provides them with a comprehensive foundation for understanding payments in a global context, covering the key principles, concepts, infrastructures, practices, issues, and current developments. The course includes critical subject material on, among others:

• Foreign exchange & currency principles
• High-value global payments
• Retail International Payments
• Alternative Payment Arrangements & Systems (Correspondent Banking, Hawala)
• Purpose & role of SWIFT
• Purpose & role of CLS
• International Payments & the Law
• International Standards, Conventions & Principles
• Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
• Anti-Money Laundering
• Global Clearing & Settlement
• Liquidity & Treasury management
• International trade facilitation
• Risk management, and 
• Legal & Regulatory issues.

This course will be of especial interest to payments professionals who wish to expand their knowledge base and advancing their careers into the global payments arena.

For a fully descriptive brochure please send a blank e-mail to courses@citadeladvantage.com with INT-JHB in the Subject line.

Remittances from the EU down for the first time

Eurostat has recently started to collect and disseminate data related to the flows of household income generated by the permanent or temporary movement of people to other countries. Eurostat’s paper highlights the main characteristics of the new data set, which includes data on workers` remittances and compensation of employees.

In 2009, outflows of workers` remittances reached €29.6 billion. However, this figure represents a fall of 4% compared to 2008 and the first decline after a long period of continuous remittance growth.

You can download the full paper HERE.

UK Police arrest six over phishing scam

The Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) has arrested six people accused of phishing the details of more than 20,000 online banking and credit card accounts before using the information to steal millions of pounds.

Over the last few days the PCeU, working with the MPS Territorial Support Group and the Irish Garda, has executed five search warrants in London and an address in Navan, County Meath, Ireland.

The raids resulted in five men and one woman being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit online banking fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences. All six are now in custody in London.

The PCeU says the arrests are part of Operation Dynamophone, an investigation into a network believed to have systematically obtained large quantities of personal information, such as online bank account passwords and credit card numbers.

The gang is believed to have acquired the information through phishing, sending large quantities of unsolicited spam e-mails, directing victims to spoof Web sites purporting to belong to legitimate banks.

Police enquiries suggest more than 10,000 online bank accounts and 10,000 credit cards have been compromised. The crooks attempted bank account take-over fraud worth £1.14 million, with £358,000 stolen successfully, say authorities.

Detective Inspector Colin Wetherill, PCeU, says: "A great deal of personal information was compromised and cleverly exploited for substantial profit. By disrupting the operation we have hopefully prevented further loss to individuals and institutions across the UK.