Bitcoin is something I have been sceptical about.  I appreciate the mathematical and security wizardry involved but it still feels like a solution seeking a problem at this point.  Today Bitcoin received, from of all places, support from Bernanke and potentially from the US Senate with specific mention of Bitcoin as a future method of money transfer.  What? I cannot for the life of me think why they would even hint at such support for Bitcoin when they cannot even agree on something as mundane as converting to chip cards.  I makes one wonder if there is not some serious … Continue reading What can of worms has the US Fed opened in appearing to support Bitcoin?

In 2009 shortly after the banking crisis was unfolding, I wrote a piece on the danger of spreadsheets.  It turns out that danger costs in the billions.  The siren call of Microsoft Excel In January 2012, losses on a derivatives portfolio that ultimately cost the bank more than $6bn stood at a mere $100m. A review team at that time identified that an important risk calculation for the portfolio was error-prone. Spreadsheets offer a fabulous and awe inspiring power to produce analysis and presentation of numbers that is hitherto unforeseen. The power lies in the functions that allow rapid calculation … Continue reading Spreadsheets–the power and the glory

There is a payments conference on this week in Toronto, and its asking the right question about the future;  What new technologies and products will fundamentally change the way we interact with the payments system?  I would go further and add to “technologies and products”, what companies, e.g. Stripe.  Only by looking at examples will the participants start to see the true potential for change. The Canadian Payments System: Ensuring Stability, Increasing Efficiency and Balancing Interests Session VI – Innovations, Implications, and Next Steps for the Payments Sector Innovations: What new technologies and products will fundamentally change the way we … Continue reading What new technologies and products will fundamentally change the way we interact with the payments system? | CD Howe Conference Toronto

This is interesting.  We know that Cisco routers form a large percentage of the internet traffic yet that is now about to be disrupted by Software Defined Networking (SDN).  Cisco are smartly not allowing this trend to get ahead of them and have been secretly working through a Cisco funded start up, Insieme, to remain firmy part of the new trend. One of the key drivers was when Amazon replaced a planned purchase of $1bilion of routers with an $11 million purchase supported by SDN software. Here’s What Happened When Cisco Lost A $1 Billion Deal With Amazon SDN is … Continue reading Even routers are going virtual – Insieme & Cisco

I recently noted the efforts spearheaded by the Bank of England to create a more integrated (across Banks) cyber security strategy. The Canadian Bank regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has developed this template which they will use in future oversight visits.  Frankly I find it weak, lacking breadth in its content and approach.  It is overly skewed towards black and white automatic shutdown in case of events for example.  Rather, art of the reality of cyber security lies in managing greyness and acknowledging such realities as the potential similarity of Denial of Service attacks and … Continue reading OSFI releases Cyber Security Self-Assessment Guidance

The death throes at Blackberry continue.  Cut and paste gaming of reviews at the Google Play Store are the latest.  The ars technica folks are very kind in their review here. Blackberry’s Android BBM app drawing lots of suspicious 5-star ratings A tremendous number of the reviews all contain identical or near-identical awful text, including missing commas and a painfully absent preposition: Continue reading The death throes at Blackberry continue with apparently fake reviews on Google Play Store

I’ve been using Amazon as by back up / hard drive replacement for 7 years now, most recently through Bitcasa.  So I am always interested to watch Amazon grow in their cloud services, and they just continue to exude confidence.  Now they are approved and to provide cloud services to the CIA which would require some serious diligence to obtain. Amazon reports quarterly net loss of $41M, sales above $17B, exceeding expectations It’s been a big quarter for Amazon, which saw the launch of new models of the Kindle Fire, a new Kindle Paperwhite, as well as sealing the deal … Continue reading Amazon to provide cloud services for the CIA, beating IBM