UK Banks Told To Reveal Tech Meltdown Plans (bbc.com)

UK banks have been told to explain how they would cope with a technology failure or cyber-attack. From a report: The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority have given financial firms three months to detail how they would respond if their systems failed. Some TSB customers were left unable to access online banking for more than a month following a botched systems upgrade in April. Banks could be ordered to take action if their plans are judged to be poor. The Bank of England and FCA have emphasised that senior management at banks will be held accountable for prolonged disruption to services.

Comments

Not sure about the UK

[rsilvergun]

but in the US I'd much rather hear about their plans to deal with the next economic downturn. Our right wing just repealed one of the major regulations here (Dodd Frank) that was passed to prevent another 2008 style crash. I've noticed that whenever we do something boneheaded Britain's right wing seems to take notes...

Our reach exceeds our grasp..

[Rick Schumann]

..and greed has poisoned everything.

Every week, right here on Slashdot, we read of at least one data breach. Banks and electronic payment systems are no longer immune to it, in fact they're at least as vulnerable, if not more so, than anything else. Most of you wander around all day long, eyes glued to the Mobile Surveillance, Tracking, and Data Logging Device you call your 'smartphone'. ISPs log your DNS requests, break into your HTTPS traffic, logging and analyzing your web browsing habits, ostensibly to 'insert targeted advertising', but all that Personally Identifiable Data still remains. The NSA/CIA/DHS/{insert gov agency here} pays companies like AT&T for direct access to Internet backbone traffic for the specific purpose of surveilling everything that happens on the Internet, everywhere. So-called 'social media' like Facebook exist solely as honeypots to not just collect people's Personally Identifiable Data, but to encourage them to volunteer it, and they pioneer new methods to extract data from people, whether they're willing or not. Most every country on the planet that can afford one has a cyber-warfare division of their military, and they're actively and continually working to break into corporate, government, and vital infrastructure systems.

We are living in a house of cards. All it will take is One Stiff Breeze to blow it all down, perhaps taking our entire civilization down with it.
What are you all going to do then?

People rely more and more on 'automation' and mechanized 'conveniences' instead of learning skills themselves.
When all the machines stop working, what will you all do then? Sit around and wait for the Repairman that will never come?

There is no species that is the natural predator of Humans; we are our own predators, though.
It only follows that the 'extinction-level event' that gets us will be caused by Humans.
What will you all do then?

The point of all this verbage is this: We need to change the way we do things, and we need to do it starting NOW.
Do I have all the answers? Hell, no I don't! I don't even have some of the answers! But I can see that we're at a critical point where something is going to break in a big, bad way, but there may still be time to head it off.

So, what are YOU going to do NOW?