Slashdot Mirror
Bank E-Communications Aid During London Bombings
davidwr writes "Reuters and eWeek report on how the British Banks' emergency chatroom and web site helped them cope with Thursday's terrorist bombing." From the article: "The Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority switched on a secure section of their Financial Sector Continuity Web site to talk to major banks in the City of London's financial hub about how they were coping. A Bank of England spokeswoman said this was the first time the secure site had been used in an actual crisis situation since its creation in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York."
Who said chatrooms are overrated? :-)
This will be the place to post the usual how America is really to blame for the London attacks, and that whatever wrongs the USA has committed somehow justifies or excuses the deliberate murder of innocent civilians.
I know that's how this discussion will go, so might as well start it here.
Really now... a 'secure' network for banks to talk to each other in? WTF are they using during normal, non-emergancy times? No wonder all these damned credit card/identity thefts take place... these idiots are broadcasting their info on unsecured networks?
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
[Wanker] Whot's happening over there.
[Boss] OMG we are teh fux0r3d!!
[Wanker] Yea but, whot's happening.
[Boss] The effing bus just blew up in front of me!
[Wanker] I see. Wh0t about bank business? Wh0t's happening?
[Boss] Fuck the bank! The bus blew up right in fron of me.
[Boss] OM Gawd!!! We are totally boned!!!
{Wanker] What ever. TTFN
[Boss] OMG! OMG!
[customer] Morning, I'd like to make a withdrawal, please.
[Wanker] Sorry, it's my tea break. Ask him.
[customer] Scuse me old chap, I'd like to make a withdrawal.
[Boss] OMG! The bus blew up. You can't make a withdrawal. Can't you see the bus blew up?
[customer] Yes but, the bank seems fine.
[Boss] Sod off you twat!!! The bus blew up. We're fux0r3d! OMG! OMG!
BritishBanks.bash.org
...well, it ain't that "secret" anymore now is it ?
In all honesty, I think the real power of such a channel only comes to light in a contingency that directly hits regular communication lines like telephone etc. In that case, an extra "hidden" link could actually have value.
Now, it was primarily a human tragedy where communication was not directly at risk.
Maybe they should have kept it a secret a while longer.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
I wonder how secure it is...what with all this stuff about protected areas of websites being found, anyone wanna take a crack at it? ;)
At least something useful came out of the Stink Branch Community! Finally justifying their millings about.
Did you not hear all about phone systems and long-distance phone networks getting clogged with calls? If it's anything like here in Canada, when phone systems are backed up, priority can only be obtained for connections by emergency services. On a dedicated network, using a web-based chatline is a simple (and simple is beautiful) way for the banks to conference call with the treasury and whatnot without worrying about phone problems. The whole point is that the banks are legitimately worried about becoming targets, this makes sense.
New slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries.
bankofE89: wtf? something blew up
treasury49: yep i know treasury49: r u ok?
bankofE89: ya
bankofE89: it wasnt nearby
treasury49: ok
bankofE89: a/s/l?
Basically, based on 9/11, BushCo has demanded and received great power. They claimed they needed these new powers to fight "the terrorists". Instead, they mostly ignored the terrorists and applied the military parts of the power to Iraq, and applied the political power to increasing their control of America.
The results? BushCo has greatly increased their political power in America, so that part is a "success", as they see it. Most of the world is increasingly polarized against America. UBL is about where he was before, though Al Qaeda is now estimated to have grown from a few hundred hard-core fanatics on 9/11 (of 2001) to tens of thousands of fanatics. In addition, BushCo has created a vast pool of revenge seekers and other potential recruits. Al Qaeda can apparently attack at will, and we just have to be greatful for trivialities, such as no chemical weapons--this time.
Iraq was in bad shape under Saddam, but now it is a total disaster zone. If BushCo left tomorrow it would be a total loss, with thousands of lives and billions of dollars gone. BushCo claims those losses now have to be considered an investment, and we have to keep pouring more good lives and good money down the the drain. And meanwhile, their own companies continue to make enormous profits on the entire fiasco. In particular, their oil interests make increasing profits as the price of oil skyrockets. Their military companies profit on new bombs. Their construction companies will profit again on cleaning up Iraq, assuming we ever get to that stage.
Finally, to close the loop, much of that money is being piped to the Saudis and other Islamic extremists, who then leak some of it to Al Qaeda, thus helping them commit fresh atrocities such as the latest attacks in London, thus justifying more political power for BushCo.
Excuse me, but the robust banking network is *NOT* important.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Just realized the mistake on the title, but nothing can be done there...
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Can you give some expamples? How is flying an airplane into a tower not physically possible? Are you saying the tower should have withstood the explosion, and that the heat from the fires should not have caused the buildings to collapse? Those gas tanks were filled, and the fire was very hot.
Or are you saying it was not muslim terrorists who caused the attacks, but some capitalists who wanted more control over USA society, more restrictive laws, less freedom.
What are you saying?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
"In the wake of 9/11..." is all too often used to start a paragraph which boils down to "...government spent a ton of money doing absolutely nothing for security while simultaneously doing far more harm to a free and democratic way of life than the terrorists ever could."
I'm pleased to see that at least in one case, someone actually gets it. You can't stop the terrorists. Random bad stuff happens in life, and the best thing for it is to be as prepared as you can. Communications is the single best way to spend money in preparation for insert-bad-stuff-here. Be it terrorism, natural disaster, industrial accident, or what have you, better communications saves lives. As has been said many times by everyone whose job doesn't involve spending billions of dollars, more money should not be spent on trying to prevent disasters, it should be spent on ways to clean up after them. Billions in airport screening is a complete waste of money because it just forces someone to bomb a mall or movie theater instead - billions in police training, EMT and EMS training, hospitals and clinics, etc. is money that will reap rewards no matter what happens next.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
I was pretty impressed that my net connection was running perfectly the whole time and various news sites seemed to be coping. I was talking on Skype no problem, but the land and mobile phones were taking a few tries to get through. Even so there were plenty of pictures from camera phones getting on the net.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
from http://eweek.com/
header: Infrastructure
Internet Chatroom Helps Keep City of London Open By Jane Merriman, Reuters and Alistair MacDonald, Reuters
July 8, 2005
Be the first to comment on this article
LONDON, July 8 (Reuters)--A secret Internet chatroom run by Britain's financial regulators helped keep London's financial markets open after Thursday's bomb blasts, while financial firms activated security measures in case of further attacks. ADVERTISEMENT
The Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority switched on a secure section of their Financial Sector Continuity Web site to talk to major banks in the City of London's financial hub about how they were coping.
A Bank of England spokeswoman said this was the first time the secure site had been used in an actual crisis situation since its creation in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
"In the light of yesterday's events, the tripartite authorities (Treasury, Bank of England and FSA) have activated the contingency part of the Web site," they said on Friday.
The Web site has a secure section in which the authorities can communicate directly with big banks that are key to the stability of the international financial system.
The City of London's financial markets, where currencies, stocks, bonds and commodities worth trillions of dollars are traded daily, kept going despite disruption from Thursday's bombings on a London bus and underground trains, which killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds.
"Contingency planning by banks has increased considerably in last three years, post Sept. 11, and what yesterday shows is that the planning has worked," said David Key, crises management practice leader at Control Risks Group, which advises many banks on crisis and security management.
PLANS IN PLACE
Swiss financial services group UBS, for example, briefly evacuated its building on Liverpool Street, which houses bond and currency desks, but contingency plans ensured trading was not affected.
Japanese bank Nomura did not have to evacuate staff to any of its three disaster recovery sites in London, but a well-rehearsed plan was put into effect, coordinated by an emergency response team, which held meetings every hour.
Nomura security staff were alerted to the bombs by text, pager and e-mail messages sent by London's police service. A complete roll call of staff was taken, and a helpline for family and friends set up. On Friday, the bank was operating with about half its usual staff, with people being told they need not come in if they did not feel comfortable doing so.
The Corporation of London, the body that runs the City, and City of London police also have an Internet communication system that was used on Thursday to pass on advice to banks and other firms in the "Square Mile", the European hub for some of the world's biggest financial services firms.
Banks have long had plans for such attacks and routinely monitor code levels put out by intelligence services and the police. Chairmen of several big banks, for example, plus their security chiefs, had a briefing with intelligence services about four months ago, one bank source familiar with the matter said.
"Banks' internal security teams have got better and more sophisticated as they have invested in best practise," Key said.
"There has also been a move away from the traditional focus on security towards risk management, or understanding the threat and developing resilience," he said.
CONTINGENCY
The City of London is no stranger to bomb attacks.
In 1992 many firms suffered devastation from a huge car bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army outside the Baltic Exchange in the heart of the area. A year later, an
"You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
I was working at a online gaming company that was acquired by Cantor Fitzgerald the Summer before the 9/11 attacks. It was a big learning experience to witness (from afar) the very personal devastation as well as the tireless recovery in the aftermath.
Although CF's ability to recover from the attack was made possible by the sheer willpower of the surviving team members in NYC and other offices around the world, equally crucial was a backup computing facility that was completed during the Summer of 2001. A factor which also helped was the greater community of financial institutions that were helping our parent company in so many different ways.
From this article, and other articles I've read, it is clear that there is a lot more resilience in the systems that keep our society going. We all learned the hard way, and we keep on learning. Even something as simple as a secure bulletin board can make a huge difference, saving lives, and speeding up the recovery.
Unless attacks reach new levels of devastation, our organizational preparedness, "process routing" capability, and improved security measures will continue to reduce the ability for terrorism to disrupt the ongoing process of globalization.
- JP
You can stop terrorists. Don't give them a good enough reason to attack you. It takes time and money to fight, and lots of people need to be highly motivated. If someone does not hate you, then why would they take all their energy and direct it at trying to kill and terrorize you?
more money should not be spent on trying to prevent disasters, it should be spent on ways to clean up after them.
I don't know what to think here. If you prevent the disaster, you won't have to clean it up. Is it a simple money equation? It costs X dollars for R&D to prevent a disaster, but a disaster only costs 1/8th of prevention. Does anyone here suggest if only 7 disasters happen, it is better to spend the money cleaning it up rather than stopping it because you would save some money?
What is the price of a human life worth?
It is like the bombings in Iraq that the USA military is doing. They say, for example, we wanted to get rid of insurgents and because of that, we had to kill some innocent people who were at the worng place at the wrong time.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
The United States is having its problems. The new "power" president Bush has obtained boils down (at least domestically) to little more than a fiscal stranglehold on the country, a limitation on citizen's rights, and xenophobic-type immigration and travel policies for foreigners.
Political moves like this are inherently unstable, especially in a country like the United States. Bush's government is fiscally irresponsible. However, the true power in the country (the corporations) will lose faith in a Republican Presidency as soon as this government's economic plans start falling apart. Once that happens, he won't stand much of a chance.
Limitations on citizen's rights can only go so far. We've all heard the secret rumours of the CIA and FBI and whomever having all this information on the American people. Things like the Patriot Act and such only mean that these organizations can do more of what they ALREADY DO out in the open. Once citizen's rights are more impinged to the point that the average Joe can no longer buy his smokes and beer as easy as usual, the next election will more likely than not prove that a US government can do anything they want, as long as they don't upset the delicate retail balance on which its people are addicted.
As for immigration, North America, left to its own devices is a dwindling population of high-priced workers. As soon as employers have to start paying more when there are fewer immigrants, and consumers have to pay more as a result, that too will have to change.
As for Iraq, only the narrow-minded see it in black and white. Yes, the United States Army has done a bang-up job (bang in the negative sense), but ask yourself this: do you think the average Shiite or Kurd was panting to keep Saddam Hussein in power? He was a murderous, power-hungry dictator that raped an entire country of resources and a decent quality of life. Yes, Bush went in for the wrong reasons. Yes, it is going badly. I can't reconcile my views on the situation in Iraq, but I know doing nothing is against everything I think the West should stand for.
The attractiveness of terrorism against the West is more likely rooted in the ease in which people are recruited. Education and dogma of the Western Businessman as the enemy of the Arab, and a serious poverty problem make poor Arabs who are being kept down by their own governments and international embargoes caused by these nations problematic take on international "diplomacy" easier targets for recruitment as suicide bombers. Why not, if the leaders of these terrorists groups can promise that your family will be cared for (when you cannot)? Deal with THESE problems and we may yet get somewhere.
When you blame it all on Bush, really you're just saying "Well, it's not my fault!". Wake up. It is all our faults.
New slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries.
Someone on-air (as in local official) in London said (real-time) they were considering flipping the switch and killing all civilian cell activity.
;)
Don't shoot the messenger - I can't attest to the veracity of that.
What I've found interesting is all of the information they've discussed which has been captured on all of the public cameras. From what they said today during the various press conferences, any repairs they make will include "that many more" cameras to watch for anyone trying to do this again.
No guns, invasion of privacy with cameras, what's wrong with these Britons?
oh. I almost forgot:
I've got some serious English heritage (can you say "Let's behead the King?") so I can't be too mean.
Well, the video I originally linked to. Then there's Physics911.net, gnn.tv, 911inplanesite.com, and alot more links at reopen911.org/links.htm
There are also numerous videos studying it like 911-InPlaneSite, The Truth and Lies of 9/11, and so on...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
The hole and wreckage at the pentagon were clearly not from a 757
On what basis are you judging this? Could you give us some examples of things that seemed askew?
no other building in history have ever collapsed by fire
That's definitely not true. Did you mean "no skyscraper" or something like that? Mostly large buildings tend to a) be pretty scrupulous in their fire prevention systems and b) not have large amounts of burning aviation fuel squirted into them during a massive high-speed impact.
Some of the evasive manuveurs performed with the planes would be hard for skilled pilots, let alone guys who had just learned and were reportadly "hopeless" by their trainers.
Apologies for cluelessness, but what evasive manoeuvres were necessary? All I remember is planes being flown into buildings, which takes comparatively little skill. Like I say, this is probably just me not remembering it all terribly well.
I'm saying if Al Quida did it, they had alot of help...but most likely they're just patsies.
So who do you think organised it? If it was some other group of terrorists then I guess it's a case of "a rose by any other name"... It doesn't really fit the style of another world government, given that it was fairly irrelevant as far as relationships between large nations go. And if I thought the US government had the acumen to pull something like that off without any word reaching the press, I'd be a lot less worried about their position at the top of the dominant country of the day.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
can we drop the funny comments (and, for that matter, anything about people worrying about money). people died. it was only yesterday.
thanks.
andy
london
no other building in history have ever collapsed by fire
This sentence in itself shoots down any credibility to you might claim to have. Of course buildings have collapsed from fire, in fact large chunks of cities have been destroyed by fire. Remember, the world trade center towers were something in the orders of 110 stories tall, any weakness in the structure was going to lead to collapse.
The sentence should have said skyscraper instead of building...but it is true, go look it up.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
The UK police now have special sim cards to enable them to continue talking even if civilian mobile networks are switched off.
The Madrid bombs were triggered remotely by mobile phones. I think this system is a direct reaction to that threat (and it makes good sense IMHO).
In this case the decision seems to have been taken not ot use the capability (or to use it in a limited way). You can't get a signal on most London underground lines - so that ruled out the possibility that these bombs were triggered by mobile.
I suggest you check out this link
The London Stock Exchange called a Fast market, in reaction to the initial high volatility and volume caused by the situation (possibly over this secure channel).
As a result of the Fast Market call, banks are requested to turn off programmed trading systems. This removes the danger that computer trading triggers will be tripped and cause catastrophic selling - leading to a crash.
Seems like everything was handled pretty well. The London equity market stabilised quickly, and actually returned to peaks of 2 weeks before within the same day. I'm sure that the reason behind this was a feeling that the attack - although bad - could have been a whole lot worse.
Most of us Americans have no clue what's going on with our country. The "news" networks in our country are a joke, but for some reason they all keep believing that we're doing what's good or right, when it's far from it.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Um...just out of curiosity, what are the stats on the number of buildings that have had Boeing 757 flown into them? I don't believe any building of that size has ever had to sustain an impact from a plane that big before.
"Me? Lady, I'm your worst nightmare -- a pumpkin with a gun."
I seem to remember it only being 51% our fault... the other 49% were actually aware of the real world.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
That's because the left wings are just as involved as the right wingers...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
It seems that the chief value of such a system is that after a disaster, they can put out a press release letting people know they have it, so everything is under control, no need to panic.
They might as well get a box, put some flashing lights on it, and broadcast a press release about their TerrorDetect advanced terrorist early warning system (tm). Stops terror in its tracks!
You mean the people that have the money actualy talk to each other securely?
That means that LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offering Rates) could still get through. This is essential for the world economy.
:-)
In case you didn't know, that means that mortgage rates in the 'States could be set.
In addition to the deals that banks can work out between themselves, the LIBOR rates, apart from eliciting comments on Rense.com about America being nothing more than a branch plant economy to our British overlords, are a fundamental component of the banking rates in the states. (Why do you think that London is so imporant? Its not the food or the beer [Smithwicks excepted].
The rates for the mortgage on a shot-gun shack in "Scrote, Arkansas" are set in London.
That is the beauty of market rates. But the "market" is in London.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Really? No 757 hit the pentagon? How about this, I dare you to walk up to a loved one of someone who was ON THE PLANE that hit the Pentagon and tell them that it never hit.
Then try and come up with a theory to explain all the missing passengers who were on the plane that never hit anything.
Check it out here: http://www.standardnetworks.com/uploads/media/MOVE it-DMZ-Secure-Messaging.PDF/
Sorry Andy,
:(
money is far more important than people in this world today....
Just look at the insurance industry:
1) They reap far more money in premiums than they pay out to cover claims made against them. I have heard that most of the (prime?) real estate in the USA is owned in whole or part by insurance companies.
2) Their unwilingness to cover any and all forms of 'nuclear devastation' -- it would surely bankrupt them (if not already utterly destroyed by said devastation). I have heard 'horror stories' of hurricaine victims getting dropped/shafted(?) by their insurance companies due to them making a policy claim in the wake of hurricane damage. Eventually, the 'Feds' had to step in to 'make things right'! This proves an industry-wide reluctance to pay insurance claims in the aftermath of even a catastrophic natural event--'act of God' in insurance parlance.
3) Look at Lloyd's Of London. Those guys will insure just about anything for the right premium payments!
When you get right down to it, in today's world, the overriding attitude is that people are worthless, a renewable, exploitable resource individually replaceable in nine months or less. How long will it take for the painful memories of the London, England bombings of 2005-07-07 to fade into the mists of obscurity like the similar attacks carried out in Madrid, Spain on 2004-03-11.
In closing, it is my hope this tragedy will put 'the powers that be' on high alert, seeing how 2005-08-06 is 'right around the corner'....
You can stop terrorists. Don't give them a good enough reason to attack you.
So what exactly did the people of Bali do?
Information wants to be beer.