Our Leaders Look Like They’re Giving Up on This War
They’re saying the war can’t be won.
They say that we can’t stop the enemy’s new weapons, that we’ll always be playing catch-up with the bad guys, and that we’re only in the early stages of solving the problem.
They say that we’re in an ever-escalating and perpetual arms race.
No, it’s not THAT war–it’s the war against online fraud and identity theft (CardForum.com link requires subscription):
Fight vs. Online Fraud Seen Reaching ‘Stalemate’
The war against online fraud may not be winnable, according to several bankers and security technology vendors.
Speakers at two New York security conferences last week agreed that the protection measures banks have in place now probably will not be effective against new types of scams that are being developed, and that even though new anti-fraud techniques are being developed, criminals will find ways to defeat them.
“This is an arms race, and it’s never going to stop,” Justin Bonar, who manages sales and business development for the Redwood City, Calif., security software vendor PassMark Security Inc., said at a panel discussion at a conference hosted by the trade magazine publisher Digital ID World LLC.
Other members of the panel agreed with his assessment.
Michael Aisenberg, the director of policy for the Mountain View authentication technology vendor VeriSign Inc., said the financial services industry is “in an early stage of solving the problem, and I don’t think we’re doing a very good job yet.”
….. Susanna Montezemolo, a policy analyst with Consumers Union, said during Mr. Penn’s panel, “There is no 100% foolproof way to stop identity theft and the harms that come from it.”
I get the sense that the industry, and even the watchdogs, are almost OK with this, or resigned to the reality. I have bad news for them: Most consumers aren’t, and will stop (or not start) using online services if these issues aren’t effectively addressed–and soon.
Is it going to take a cutback in online usage of financial services, and the economic slowdown that will likely accompany it, to make these people wake up? Or would they prefer that the government, acting on demands from outraged consumers/voters, come up with the control standards?
