Examining How Facebook Got Hacked

“Even the most savvy information technologists aren't immune from cyber-attacks. Just ask Facebook. The social-media titan says it fell victim to a sophisticated attack discovered in January in which an exploit allowed malware to be installed on employees' laptops.

In a blog posted by Facebook Security on Feb. 15, the company said it found no evidence that Facebook user data was compromised.”

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What we are reading … 18th February 2013

Visa Launches Mobile Money Managed Service for the 'Unbanked' http://dld.bz/chjBw

Global Watchdog Needs More Time on Derivatives Rules http://twb.io/12yyR5y

Nigeria: Transactions On Electronic Platforms Hit Record N40bn http://shar.es/Yll6z

9 ways to improve ATM estate performance in 2013 http://www.finextra.com/Community/FullBlog.aspx?blogid=7377

To Encourage Mobile Payments, Select LevelUp Merchants Ban Credit Cards in Stores http://betak.it/p1S

Consumers Expect More From Mobile Banking Apps Than They're Getting http://bit.ly/Ycgd2b

Apple and the Future of NFC http://www.finextra.com/Community/FullBlog.aspx?blogid=7374

Black Swan Event: Meteor Injures 1,200 in Russia

Almost at the same time as an asteroid came dangerously close (in NASA’s terms) to earth, so came the news about a meteorite streaming through the sky over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region. So far, it is estimated that the shockwave has caused severe damage to property and over 1,200 are reported injured, though that number continues to climb.

The meteorite landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in Chelyabinsk region, and Friday morning's dramatic passage was witnessed hundreds of kilometres away.

The explosion rivalled a nuclear blast, but the meteor was still too small for advance-warning networks to spot.

This is a typical Black Swan event that unfortunately cannot be prepared for.

Just to remind readers, a Black Swan must have the following three attributes.

1. It is an outlier, beyond the realm of regular expectations, because experience can’t point to its possibility.
2. It carries an extreme impact.
3. After the fact we produce explanations for its occurrence, making it explainable and predictable and by extension, preventable.

As Morgan O’Rourke pointed out in a 2011 piece in “Risk Management”, “If a large space rock chooses to head our way there really isn’t much we can do about it, regardless of Bruce Willis’ formidable skill set.”

Wired backs that up, stating, “All the advanced air defenses that humanity has invested in? The interceptor missile that are (sometimes) able to stop an adversary missile from impacting? The early-warning monitoring systems that are supposed to give humanity enough time to plan a response? They are useless, useless against a meteorite onslaught.”

A 20,000-strong team has been sent to the Ural mountains as part of a rescue and clean-up operation, Russia's emergency, ministry says.





This wasn’t Russia’s first encounter with a massive meteorite. On July 30, 1908, a devastating explosion occurred in the skies over Siberia with the strength 1,000 times that of the Hiroshima blast at the end of WWII. Today’s blast in Russia is now the second largest meteorite to hit earth in the last century or so The 1908 event ranks as first.
A clip from the History Channel explains:

Startup Prepares Alternative to Online, Mobile Banking Passwords

“As banks struggle to move past passwords, a Silicon Valley startup is taking a stab at a fingerprint and facial recognition standard backed by some heavy hitters — PayPal and Lenovo among them.”

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Consumers Ready for Mobile Banking, but Banks Aren't“

According to Juniper Research's report, “Mobile Banking: Handset & Tablet Market Strategies 2013-2017”, more than $1 billion cellphone owners will use their devices for banking purposes by 2017, up from 590 million this year.

To provide some context, total world population growth by 2017 is 7.6 billion.

Yet a separate study from Javelin notes that consumers are growing increasingly frustrated by their mobile banking experiences. As a result, many consumers will leave banks and turn to outside sources, mostly technology outfits.”
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Is American Banking Falling Behind?

“Just about everyone in US retail banking agrees that the industry is going through a period of dramatic change, sparked primarily by the introduction and adoption of mobile technologies and secondarily by the pressure to cut costs and get creative in the aftermath of the American financial crisis. Retail banks in other countries have felt the same pressures, to varying degrees, and in many cases they seem to be responding faster and better than their American counterparts.”

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Disruptions: Where Apple and Dick Tracy May Converge http://nyti.ms/VO2Mta

Beware the Big Errors of 'Big Data' http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/02/big-data-means-big-errors-people/

Me Too Rules in Mobile Banking http://dld.bz/cg4zr

Citi implements corporate-to-bank Swift standard for trade http://www.finextra.com/News/FullStory.aspx?newsitemid=24544

Playmobil punts bank-heist set to wide-eyed kiddies http://dld.bz/cg4sS

Identity providers: The voucher business http://econ.st/14UpT6P

The Tightrope Between Checking Account Fees And Consumer Defections http://bit.ly/Y5kKU0

5 Reasons to Let an Angry Email Simmer Down http://dld.bz/cg3Xf

What's Next For Mobile Banking? http://twb.io/YH97DU