The Next Attack? Finacial Maybe

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Just seeing how much confusion and peed-off people there are with a   glitch at one bank got myself wondering if that might be the next kind of terrorist attack that we could expect. Imagine if the whole computer banking system could be effected. I'm sure this would cause the kind of   market panic they are looking for. Am I wrong, or can't this happen?
Bruce

 

[muskrat89]

Nope - you are correct. I was lucky enough to attend a 3 day course on WMD Threat and Risk Assesment this spring. Interestingly, I was the only "civvie" on it. The rest were FD, PD, EMT types, Emergency planners (state, county, and municipal levels) some Military guys (bomb techs IIRC) etc. Was a very interesting class - terrorists are looking at all and any targets - especially those that have multiplying effects. The beauty (maybe not the best word) of the situation you describe, is it doesn't tie up many human resources and the resulting havoc tying up first responders at banks, ATMs, etc. would make a nice diversion for more sinister attacks...

Just my opinion of course, as I am certainly not declaring myself an expert......

 

[Goober]

Nothing is safe when it comes to what the terrorists would choose as a target, the banking system would probably be top on the list for sure.

But they don't have to worry about targeting Royal Bank, thier Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution was a horrible choice. The reason they are in the mess they are in now is because the software they use, to put it bluntly is crap. I use the same CRM software at work and every day there are issues, can't log in, can't access billing records, lost orders etc...

A wireless company in the US sued the maker o the CRM software for millions because the companys computer system was incapacitated for about 1 month, not sure of the outcome of that case.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I've read a good article about civil terrorism.
It basically went on to say if a group attacks the public, like bombing market places, bus's, basically taking life, it turns the civilians against the terrorists and a good portion of them rally behind the government.

If a group targets public facilities such as water filtration plants, sewage plants, electrical grids, phone companies- basically attacking the quality of life the civilians will turn against the local police and government for failing to protect them and upholding their standard of life.

A group could do just as much harm without the loss of life.

I thought it was an interesting read, I'll try to find it if anyones interested. It had some pretty good military applications too.

 

[girlfiredup]

Well I think this calls for the purchase of a fire-proof safe.     I honestly don't like keeping my funds in the bank because I have often thought about an attack like that or a major computer glitch happening and not being able to access your funds or having the system completely wipe out all the numbers.   "We're sorry ma'am but without any proof..we can not confirm your numbers are accurate."  Look what happened when the twin towers went down, the main financial nerve of the world, it shut the stock markets down for a week and bankrupted airlines that had been successful in operating for many years.

 

[wongskc]

I remember a CBC documentary a long time ago talking about Canada providing aid after Sept 11.  On it they said that the attack on the twin towers severely damaged a lot of the US's banking infrastructure and Canadian banks ended up offering the use of their surplus infrastructure to the Americans.

Apparently a lot of this back up infrastructure was put in place due to Y2K, so apparently all that hype actually did serve us in the long run.