Slashdot Mirror
UK ATM System Could Have Ruined Economy
seanyboy writes "The Register is running the story of how the UK banking system could have collapsed in the early 1990s, how easy it was at the time to withdraw against other people's accounts and the worrying case of a Bank's rogue IT Department." From the article: "What quickly became clear was that the law needed a system to provide proof that events had happened so that legal cases could be made. You might say that 'the computer debited the account', but to a barrister (and more importantly, a judge) that's not enough. Did the computer do it at random? In that case it's like a tree branch falling - an accident. Or did a person program it to do so? In which case the person must be able to testify about the precise circumstances when a debit could happen. Sounds daft, but the law rests on proving each step of an argument irrefutably."
lifts up his mattress and whispers to his stash of crumpled bills that he knew they were safe all along and the youngsters just don't know! They JUST DON'T KNOW!
My humor is probably your flamebait
Computers? Pah! Everyone knows that back in those days it was a midget with a box of money, trained to make BEEP! BEEP! noises.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
banks rob YOU!
+1 funny, -2 overrated. Life isn't fair.
A 'friend of mine' used to get free money out of ATMs in the late 80's by using the simple method of a piece of stickytape. you go to the ATM and draw out £5, on those old machines and when the gate opened you had time to stick a peice of tape across the dispensing rollers. You then hang around like surly teenagers while people fail to draw money out - after 5 people have done this you go back and withdraw another £5, when the gate opens you use a pair of tweezers to rip off the tape and claim the winnings (normally around £200 - £400). Yes, my friend had few morals when he was a teenager, but a nice computer.
The Briths economy is already fucked, and has been for some time.
Of course, sixteen years of economic incompetence will do that to a country, especially when eight of them are under Marxist government... currently shifting to a despotic Marxist government.
God save the fucking Queen. Nobody else can.