Big Galoot Diatribe - The Buck Stops….Where?

January 12th, 2008 Drazen Drazic Posted in Big Galoot Diatribe, Industry Specialists Talk |

The rantings of Craig Chapman, Computer Forensics Geek.

Barclays Bank in the UK is reportedly revising its security practises following the rip-off of 10,000 pounds from their own Chairman’s personal account by a fraudster.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;732567044;fp;16;fpid;1

Not surprisingly, Barclays have ‘accepted liability’ and also reimbursed the stolen 10,000 pounds into the Chairman’s account. But what if it were you or I, the plebs of the world, who had suffered this loss?

Do you think the loss of 10,000 pounds from a run of the mill, “mum & dad’s” personal account would cause an entire bank to revise it’s security practices ?

And how forthcoming do you think a bank might be in reimbursing our stolen hard-earned ?

In my opinion, the Chairman should not have been reimbursed the stolen funds. He as Chairman of the bank shares a large portion of the blame for his personal monies being stolen from his bank in the first place.  He should have been more diligent. He should have worn the loss himself!

Maybe there’s a lesson here for the IT Security world.  When attempting to sell new security projects or ideas to the CIO or whomever, try & personalise the reasons why good security is  such a good idea. For example, “What if your personal account was hacked, Mr Chairman ?….How would you feel ?”  (Granted, you might instantly lose your job, but you get
my point about putting a human aspect on the problem !)  

But for now it seems the adage ‘The buck stops here’ apparently doesn’t apply to the Chairman of Barclays UK.

BG.