If financial systems are hacked (the world economy could grind to a halt) - Polidicks

[quote]The financial system is little more than a set of promises between people and institutions. If these are no longer believed the whole house of cards will collapse and people will take their money and run. That happened in 2008 because of bad credit decisions; but the same could unfold via a sophisticated cyber-attack. Processes designed to make banking safer have created new vulnerabilities: large amounts of money flow through certain key bits of infrastructure. If such systemic institutions were compromised, a panic similar to those in 2008 could quickly spread. [/quote] (...) [quote]The attackers might start with small changes, tweaking numbers in transactions as they are processed (Bank A gets credited $1,000, for example, but on the other side of the transaction Bank B is debited $0, or $900 or $100,000). As lots of erroneous payments travel the globe, and as it becomes clear that these are not just “glitches”, eventually the entire system would be deemed unreliable. Unsure how much money they have, banks could not settle their books when markets close. Settlement is a legally defined, binding moment. Regulators and central banks would become agitated if they could not see how solvent the nation’s banks were at the end of the financial day.[/quote] source: [url]http://worldif.economist.com/article/12136/joker-pack[/url]

I think that should be "hacked" in the title

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;50544819]I think that should be "hacked" in the title[/QUOTE] beh tried to change it but it didn't work.

[QUOTE=icarusfoundyou;50544830]beh tried to change it but it didn't work.[/QUOTE] Mod could probably change it for you.

and if a comet hits earth we're all fucked but is it likely??????

[QUOTE=Roger Waters;50546480]and if a comet hits earth we're all fucked but is it likely??????[/QUOTE] More likely than a comet.

[QUOTE=ridinmybike;50546506]More likely than a comet.[/QUOTE] [del]No a comet would be more likely considering they fall into Earth all the time. I think the poltiically charged bassist meant to say asteroid.[/del] I mixed up comet and meter

[QUOTE=Roger Waters;50546480]and if a comet hits earth we're all fucked but is it likely??????[/QUOTE] How easy is it to cause chaos and anarchy? One bullet to a politicians skull, be it real or [url=http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/04/23/ap-twitter-account-tweets-fake-obama-assassination-attempt]fake as fug[/url], can almost instantly cause stock failures. Causing market panic to ensue and if something isn't corrected quick enough, stuff can go haywire fairly quickly. That's not even talking about the US Power Grid, which can be summed up as "Chainsaw and explosives to electrical pole, yay!" and suddenly you have an entire area without power for a few hours. Next you look at groups of hackers who can fairly easily take down water refineries, hydro-electric dam moderators, and powerhubs, and you are looking at a very, very scary issue. CBS did something on this a while back, and if I recall someone at DEFCON did a little, "How fucked are we" type of show. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2-rkZOL8C4[/media]

Imagine what kind of riots there would be if the servers that handle food stamps and ebt went down for any significant amount of time.

The monetary system is the ultimate form of the Emperor's new clothes. The only reason we believe paper has value, or people have digital currency is because the institutions we trust say they do. In reality it's pure bullshit, but no one questions it, because without it our entire way of life would cease to exist.

[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;50546944]How easy is it to cause chaos and anarchy? One bullet to a politicians skull, be it real or [url=http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/04/23/ap-twitter-account-tweets-fake-obama-assassination-attempt]fake as fug[/url], can almost instantly cause stock failures. Causing market panic to ensue and if something isn't corrected quick enough, stuff can go haywire fairly quickly. That's not even talking about the US Power Grid, which can be summed up as "Chainsaw and explosives to electrical pole, yay!" and suddenly you have an entire area without power for a few hours. Next you look at groups of hackers who can fairly easily take down water refineries, hydro-electric dam moderators, and powerhubs, and you are looking at a very, very scary issue. CBS did something on this a while back, and if I recall someone at DEFCON did a little, "How fucked are we" type of show. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2-rkZOL8C4[/media][/QUOTE] "The next blackout could be just a keystroke away" Del

I thought the most important financial systems ran on obscure hardware/software eg not unix & not windows.

This literally isn't news, this is an opinion piece. But on the topic matter, yes, financial infrastructure and banks in particular are very juicy targets for hackers, they can make real money there unlike with many other potential targets, they're vulnerable because of their nature. This isn't a new phenomenon though, financial infrastructure and banks have been targeted ever since we started hoarding money into a single location, if all, technology has made financial assets safer than if they existed physically in one location.

If nuclear power plants systems can be totally compromised and fucked up Why not banks?

[QUOTE=Aide;50547084]I thought the most important financial systems ran on obscure hardware/software eg not unix & not windows.[/QUOTE] Some day someone working at America's finest nuclear silo since 1965 will take out a floppy disk to clean it and accidentally hit the off button, when he turns it back on Windows 10 will install all on it's own.

Well at least the same can't happen with nuclear weapons and that. Right?

[QUOTE=TheNerdPest14;50547781]Well at least the same can't happen with nuclear weapons and that. Right?[/QUOTE] Generally land based nuclear weapon systems are isolated, and im pretty sure most of the ready-to-use US nuclear arsenal is on our submarines which are obviously isolated. After looking up the numbers there are about 432 missiles carried on our Ohio class submarines, and 450 in silos around the US.

[QUOTE=TheNerdPest14;50547781]Well at least the same can't happen with nuclear weapons and that. Right?[/QUOTE] idk about those fancy new ones but the US arsenal of freedom runs on 8" floppies [I]OF FREEDOM[/I] lets see the chinese sneak a virus onto those! but really there is no way for a computer to launch a nuclear missile, the silos are pretty much manually actuated and certain non-networked devices have to be activated to actually launch a missile.

snip

Probably because while it is harmful, hacking is a lot of work and a lot of the times a person or group of people want to work on things that benefit themselves directly. Crashing the power grid would be a pretty amazing show of power for sure, but unless it is a part of a larger plan there isnt much to gain. The first time it happens it will also incentivize security upgrades across the country, so doing it again will probably be difficult. And these days the federal government has security professionals working for them too, so if you slip up and someone is able to find out who you are, it is a very dangerous game to play.

[QUOTE=V12US;50546995]The monetary system is the ultimate form of the Emperor's new clothes. The only reason we believe paper has value, or people have digital currency is because the institutions we trust say they do. In reality it's pure bullshit, but no one questions it, because without it our entire way of life would cease to exist.[/QUOTE] money doesn't exactly have value because people say it does. it's because it can be exchanged for useful things and it's usually backed in some capacity by its ability to procure a useful good or service in the modern era, money gains its value due to the fact it can be used to pay taxes with to the government (amongst other things)

[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;50546944]How easy is it to cause chaos and anarchy? One bullet to a politicians skull, be it real or [url=http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/04/23/ap-twitter-account-tweets-fake-obama-assassination-attempt]fake as fug[/url], can almost instantly cause stock failures. Causing market panic to ensue and if something isn't corrected quick enough, stuff can go haywire fairly quickly. That's not even talking about the US Power Grid, which can be summed up as "Chainsaw and explosives to electrical pole, yay!" and suddenly you have an entire area without power for a few hours. Next you look at groups of hackers who can fairly easily take down water refineries, hydro-electric dam moderators, and powerhubs, and you are looking at a very, very scary issue. CBS did something on this a while back, and if I recall someone at DEFCON did a little, "How fucked are we" type of show. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2-rkZOL8C4[/media][/QUOTE] That part about the Department of Homeland Security and the government in general not having a plan to prevent such an attack is hilarious, mostly because of how we're getting extremely different stories from each side and also because of how reluctant all the officials (from the DHS to the White House) are to discuss this issue. Either they've got one and it's so secretive they won't/can't talk about it, or they're just bullshitting so the public won't lose what little confidence is left in them and their abilities because they've actually got nothing. Or it's a mix of both, and what they've got is pathetic/inadequate, but they're working towards implementing something better... eventually. I like the DHS's generic response statement too: [quote]"To be clear, the Department of Homeland Security has a plan... We, along with the Department of Energy, coordinate national efforts to strengthen the security and resilience of the electric grid. We also work with energy sector partners to promote the security and resilience of the groud, through myriad activities both seen and unseen..."[/quote] :v: