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."

Comments

And they think worries about...

[Safe Sex Goddess]

And the politicians think worries about electronic voting machine fraud is just a bunch of conspiracy nuts.

It would be a sad thing if we've already lost our democracy.

Sounds like 2 issues here

[TykeClone]

1 - If something undermines trust in the banking system (in any country), the economy can quickly go to hell in a handbasket.

2 - The UK didn't have something similar to Reg E in the United States regulating "electronic" banking (in the US, that would include ACH items, wire transfers, and ATM/debit card transactions). And apparently, the UK doesn't have the banking regulatory structure to add such regulations as necessary without passing new laws.

If anyone is interested, here is Reg E in all of its glory.