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Pete Finnigan's Oracle Security Weblog

This is the weblog for Pete Finnigan. Pete works in the area of Oracle security and he specialises in auditing Oracle databases for security issues. This weblog is aimed squarely at those interested in the security of their Oracle databases.

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Happy New Year and an example of having your bank account compromised



I would like to wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year for 2008. It's been two weeks since my last post here; things have been hectic (again) with xmas and also work and trips abroad.

I saw today on the OakTable list a post Niall about a news item about Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. This article is titled "Clarkson stung after bank prank" and it talks about the fact that Clarkson posted his bank details in his newspaper column to make a point that the loss of the HMRC data to two CD's was a fuss about nothing. If you know anything about data security and identity theft you would be shaking your head if you read his column and sure enough someone created a direct debit and took 500 quid from his account and gave it to the charity diabetes UK. Don't mess with data, especially data that relates to your personal details; there will always be someone who can abuse it.

There has been 4 Comments posted on this article


January 7th, 2008 at 08:30 pm

Pete Finnigan says:

Of course, the irony is that it couldn't happen to a nicer man...



January 8th, 2008 at 08:50 am

Pete Finnigan says:

..:-)

he should be worried now about how much of his personal data has been found by any number of people based on his Sun newspapper column. Its like the "unbreakable" quote about Oracle, it's a carrot that must be chased by some people.



January 10th, 2008 at 01:54 pm

Pete Finnigan says:

Even more ironic is the story from today that Barclays chairman has had £10,000 taken from his BarclayCard account, because his call centre issued a replacement card to another address.
Data thief is a people issue not a technology issue. Techology only goes so far.



January 12th, 2008 at 07:41 pm

Pete Finnigan says:

Thanks for your comment Kev and happy new year to you.

I had a similar issue on Friday, i received an invite from Goldfish to offer me a credit card (that I dont want) and in the envelope was an invite for a lady in east yorkshire as well as the one for me complete with her personal details. I rang them (not interested), I rang the FSA, they said talk to the information commissioner, so i rang them, they said....hmmm... well if you want you can send a letter if you really want to. No one is intersted. I took the time to report it, they are not willing to write it down at their end, they want me to write a letter and do the work...

It is a people thing.