Opinions

I don't entirely trust the Internet. I realize this is not an original sentiment, but the rapid increase in financial usage of the Internet suggests that we now trust it a lot more. Trust increases when the frequency and impact of perceived risks decrease. For the Internet, the risks fall into three categories: hackers with viruses, spams and scams with careless users and profiteers spreading fear.

Trojans took an impressive 80 percent share of the Internet threat market in 2006, defeating Windows-based worms for the second year running. It was a Trojan that cost the Swedish bank Nordea 8 million kronor over the past few months. This Trojan is available for sale and its hacker creator offers purchasers a graphical user interface, customized code scripts and software support. I wish some of my commercial applications had ease-of-use features and support like that.

Banks are obvious targets and have protected themselves from widespread fraud using a combination of sophisticated security systems and flat denial. This hacker says 99 percent of bank fraud is unreported to protect their image, and mentioned an Australian bank that was also hit by the same Trojan. But then, he's probably lying because we know he's a crook, whereas the banks . . .

The public generally regard bank-jacking with benign amusement since the current law largely protects us from financial loss caused by Internet fraud. So there was outrage through the community when news emerged that ASIC has been lobbied by the banking industry to make customers who were negligent liable for Internet fraud. A righteous response — except the information wasn't accurate. The reports originated from "mistaken information" in a computer security company's press release.

The company's CTO added his two cents, advising that to be secure, users must "check the fingerprint of the SSL certificate" and ensure "the DNS server is properly configured". Picture the average PC user. Mention the phrases SSL certificate fingerprint and DNS server configuration and count the microseconds before their eyes glaze over. Mention these phrases to the average CIO and marvel at an identical reaction. The CTO then suggested that the only way to overcome financial attacks would be to integrate customer PCs into the bank's security chain, and let the bank perform security health checks and scans on them. Trust the banks to scan and manage my computer? That alone should ensure everyone rushes out and installs their own security software.

Secret Password

I know that banks are very concerned about security because of the many e-mails they send me to update my password on their Web site. Being a careful user, I delete them all. However, when I received an e-mail from National Australia Bank's "High Executive Bureau", it seemed too important to ignore, so I complied and clicked the helpfully included Web address. I concluded that their Web site had a Hong Kong domain purely for offshore taxation reasons, and entered a login and password as requested. I'm not actually a NAB customer, so I had to invent a likely login before entering my usual secret password — which like countless other users is secret.

The Internet also provides personal financial gain. So many people e-mail me each week offering jobs of little effort with fantastic incomes that I've stopped bothering with any that promise less than $5000 per week. A recent development is to be offered specific positions with real companies. An Icelandic company repeatedly e-mailed me saying someone with my skills and experience is ideal for a senior job in their finance department. The Web address is indeed a company in Reykjavik and the sender's name and e-mail is that of their finance manager. That I don't speak Icelandic, have no experience in finance, don't like Bjork's music and didn't apply for a job were apparently no obstacle.

I need to be less trusting as it's possible some of these e-mails are not genuine. A South Korean woman was arrested last month for sending several trillion spam e-mails. Assuming an online population of 3.5 billion people, that's around 1000 e-mails per user from just one spammer. I calculate this online number from the population of the planet (6.5 billion), less those who can't use computers — that is, parents (0.5 billion), people with better things to do with their time (1 billion) and those who don't have access to clean water or fresh food, so broadband is less of a concern (1.5 billion).