High-Frequency Trading: A Sociologist’s Take

For Donald MacKenzie, individuals’ interactions with machines, mathematics and technology in competitive settings – and the risks that may ensue – are subjects of great fascination, whether in financial markets, bitcoin mining or nuclear weaponry.

MacKenzie comes at it not as a technologist, mathematician or engineer, but rather as a social scientist.

Professor Donald MacKenzie weighs the risks of models, algorithms, market concentration and jitter in this article by Katherine Heires and published on the GARP website. Read it HERE.

Managing Inflation Risk

In a constantly-evolving economic environment so full of uncertainty, it’s hard for risk managers to get a proper read on the outlook for inflation. But they can use scenario mapping to evaluate and adapt to such emerging risks proactively, while simultaneously combating bias, extremist thinking and herd behavior in risk management.

Read GARP's article "What’s Next? A Guide to Managing Inflation Risk" HERE.

Cryptocurrency fuels ransomware payments

Cryptocurrency fuels ransomware payments and without regulation, it could get much worse. The rapid ascent of crypto, like other emerging technologies before it, has far outpaced the federal government's ability to regulate it.

 

Read the full article HERE.

 

“TOP READS OF THE WEEK” (for week ending 7 May)

The latest top reads in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT, risk management and much more

In this weeks selection;

Top Reads

• DevOps Essential for Digital Innovation in Banking & Financial Services
• Kaspersky spots CIA malware with backdoor capabilities
• WhatsApp Delays Privacy Policy Changes After Confusion Backlash
• Implementing AI in Your Business: What Business Leaders Need to Know
• What happens if threat data isn't shared?
• Undergraduates explore practical applications of artificial intelligence
• UK tools up against China’s intel gathering
• Types of Artificial Intelligence – Weak, Strong and Super AI
• Warning: ‘Hundreds Of Millions At Risk’ From 12-Year-Old Vulnerabilities Lying Deep In Dell PCs
• Combining Three Pillars Of Cybersecurity
• Ransomware is now a national security risk. This group thinks it knows how to defeat it
• Cybersecurity Ignorance Is Dangerous
• 10 Types of Malware in 2021 and How to Spot Them

From our Blog

• Here comes official e-money
• Password managers - a necessary, yet vulnerable, last line of defense
• Bernie Madoff and Jordan Belfort and their criminal financial schemes
  

Here comes official e-money

Technology has changed everything. Bitcoin has moved from being a gimmick to a supposed “financial asset”. The stock market, once the preserve of the specialist broker has become the stomping ground of the digital day trader, and have become a real force on Wall Street. China’s digital payments giants are being closely pursued by America’s PayPal. With its 392 million users, PayPal has become a force in its own right.

Now, a new development, barely noticed on the murky frontier between technology and finance could become the most revolutionary of them all. The government digital currency.

Imagine if people could deposit directly with the central bank; conventional lenders would be completely sidelined.

Government digital currency or “Govcoins” are a new manifestation of plain old fashioned money, those coins and notes we all know so well.

“Govcoins” not only promise to make finance work better, they have the potential to upend the financial system.

The last decade has seen a revolution in banking and payment systems. Experiments abound.

Read the full story HERE.

 

Bernie Madoff and Jordan Belfort and their criminal financial schemes

Ike Sorkin, lawyer to both Bernie Madoff and Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wall Street), discusses their criminal financial schemes and how regulatory safeguards failed. This is a repeat of the TRACE podcast episode that was originally published in June 2017.

With the recent death of Bernie Madoff, it is perhaps a timely opportunity to revisit the details. 

You can listen to this podcast
HERE.

Password managers - a necessary, yet vulnerable, last line of defense

The Passwordstate breach is forcing CISOs and researchers to review vendors and reassess security practices.

The supply chain breach of Passwordstate, an Australian-based enterprise-grade password manager, is the latest in a series of confidence-shaking breaches since the SolarWinds attack was disclosed in December.

While Passwordstate has a relatively low level of brand awareness in the U.S., more than 29,000 organizations across the globe and upwards of 370,000 IT and security professionals used the password manager.

While it's generally better practice than what most users do with their passwords (reusing predictable passwords or writing them down in a text file or post it note), it does represent a single point of failure that needs to be specially guarded.

Read the full story HERE .