Commonwealth Bank of Australia "loses" records of over 20 million accounts

[HalGameGuru]

2 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

who cares? this has nothing to do with conventional banks vs bitcoin/blockchain/whatever. a third party company lost a physical drive with customer information on it. it can happen to literally any company 

Hence my contention that when decommissioning such sites the tapes should be scrubbed first. It takes all of two seconds.

[Ryujin2003]

7 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I didn't think anyone still used tape drives for storing data....

I didn't think things "fell off the back of a truck" in any sorry if legitimate way....

 

It's more likely to have evolved, grown legs, and walked it's magnetic ass off somewhere.

[Serin]

29 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I didn't think things "fell off the back of a truck" in any sorry if legitimate way....

 

It's more likely to have evolved, grown legs, and walked it's magnetic ass off somewhere.

Last year a filing cabinet full of govt documents was literally sold at auction without anyone from govt emptying it.
We're doing quite well at the style of 'fell off the back of a truck.'

[Kamjam21xx]

Someone probably paid for all of that info, and is using it lol.

[Arika]

1 hour ago, Serin said:

Last year a filing cabinet full of govt documents was literally sold at auction without anyone from govt emptying it.

they WHAT?!

[Spotty]

9 hours ago, HalGameGuru said:

I'm not sure I like an institution like this not making such a breach known much sooner. I'm not sure if its a government institution, or a private one under charter, or what.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a publicly traded company. It's not owned or operated by the Government of Australia.
 

Quote

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Commonly referred to as the Commonwealth Bank (or CBA or Commbank)

Founded in 1911 by the Australian government and fully privatised in 1996, the Commonwealth Bank is one of the "big four" Australian banks, with National Australia Bank (NAB), ANZ and Westpac. The bank listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1991.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank

[Kamjam21xx]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a publicly traded company. It's not owned or operated by the Government of Australia.
 

So in otherwords it could be owned by the people in the government.

[Serin]

44 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

they WHAT?!

This.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-31/cabinet-files-reveal-inner-government-decisions/9168442

[mr moose]

5 hours ago, HalGameGuru said:

then you may wanna go back and either cite some example of what you are talking about or be more specific. Because it sounds a lot like you are saying that the "security and transparency" of "BitCoin" (i think you meant the blockchain) has had occasions of failure. Of those specific selling points. Which is inaccurate.

 

Crikey,  no.  Not even close to saying that.  In fact I am not sure how you even got that out of my post. If you look at the post I was responding to you'll see it is not about the technicalities of either, but the impression people have of either and why they respond to each in the news differently.

[HalGameGuru]

I admit I may be going way too far on pedantry. I tend to do so. It gets me into a lot of trouble online. Or at least starts a lot of heated debates. But, i find it important to drill down on these things, whether I am in the right or not, so that others who come along later get a better and more accurate picture of what was discussed. If i did misread your original commentary I do apologize. But having said that I am continuing the argument simply because I can and I find these kinds of things morbidly interesting.

 

"Like they do with BitCoin"

"Swear black and blue"

"security and transparency"

"then when that fails"

 

You are speaking of people in these threads reacting differently, to these types of news stories, regarding crypto. And specifically BitCoin and its blockchain. Which is inaccurate. Not on how people react, but the factual events. It's conflation on both sides, but your conflation is furthering THEIR conflation. Anyone who would see the failures of the exchanges as some kind of reflection of the technology putting it in need of defending is as wrong as those who would use those examples as some kind of argument against those technologies.

 

Spoiler

Differently how? Once again, where is the blockchain analog to this situation? The analogous situations we are speaking of aren't connected to bitcoin or blockchain, they are the exchanges, which have had numerous failures, whose failures had nothing to do with the technology or security of the blockchains in question.

Quote

now imagine how skewed the comments in this thread would be if instead of bank in the title there was bitcoin marketplace or crypto something

Quote

To be fair, there has been no one one these forums pontificating the supreme awesomeness and security of the conventional banking system like they do with bitcoin.   It's not really unexpected news when this happens (which isn't even a digital breach), however when various groups swear black and blue that bitcoin is the future due to security and transparency, then when that fails you inevitable draw the ire of those who were told otherwise.

 

[killcomic]

3 hours ago, Kamjam21xx said:

So in otherwords it could be owned by the people in the government.

Only as private individuals, not as a government emtity. It could also be owned by the guy at the corner shop and the bloke at the servo.

Edited May 4, 2018 by killcomic

[asus killer]

it's not really important if it's crypto, a public or private institution or a government who doesn't empty the cabinet before selling it.

The news keep pilling on this, either companies that lost, sold, let themselves be robbed or have random acts of stupidity and/or careless with information. EU now was some new privacy laws with big fines, that i really haven't study that much, but lets hope something changes.

[killcomic]

I find the title amusing. "Bank of Australia ", like there's only one bank.

It's called the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, one of many privately operated banks.

[Kamjam21xx]

26 minutes ago, killcomic said:

Only as private individuals, not as a government emtity. It could also be owned by the guy at the corner shop and the bloke at the servo.

Exactly, so we agree.

[killcomic]

1 hour ago, ChromeFlags44 said:

Just being pedantic but Commonwealth Bank is never really shortened to Bank of Australia here.

I think the OP tried to make the title a bit more sensarional than it actually is.

Nothing pedantic about this, the thread title is just plain wrong.

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, ChromeFlags44 said:

Just being pedantic but Commonwealth Bank is never really shortened to Bank of Australia here.

 

Just now, killcomic said:

I think the OP tried to make the title a bit more sensarional than it actually is.

Nothing pedantic about this, the thread title is just plain wrong.

I think they were just under the impression that it was our central banking institution given its name. To be fair, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was the central bank in Australia up until 1960 when it was replaced by the Reserve Bank of Australia, and was Government controlled until the 1990s when it was privatised. For someone who isn't from Australia and isn't familiar with our banks it would be an easy mistake to make considering the name of the bank. OP has since updated the title so all is good.

 

[killcomic]

16 minutes ago, Spotty said:

 

I think they were just under the impression that it was our central banking institution given its name. To be fair, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was the central bank in Australia up until 1960 when it was replaced by the Reserve Bank of Australia, and was Government controlled until the 1990s when it was privatised. For someone who isn't from Australia and isn't familiar with our banks it would be an easy mistake to make considering the name of the bank. OP has since updated the title so all is good.

 

Well, it does sound grand, even if the bank itself is pretty meh.

[HalGameGuru]

6 hours ago, killcomic said:

I think the OP tried to make the title a bit more sensarional than it actually is.

Nothing pedantic about this, the thread title is just plain wrong.

Honestly I just don't like long titles and commonwealth is huge. In my OP i said I didn't know whether the bank was part of the government or not, commonwealth being a word denoting being part and parcel with some nation, but it being part of the british empire where that ideal is as often as not a selling point worthy of using the word even if its a private institution gave me pause. Pedantry is appreciated and respected. Change was made.

 

EDIT: My original title was going to be "Commonwelath bank of australia "loses" records of over 20 millions accounts, 12 million customers"

[mr moose]

15 hours ago, HalGameGuru said:

I admit I may be going way too far on pedantry. I tend to do so. It gets me into a lot of trouble online. Or at least starts a lot of heated debates. But, i find it important to drill down on these things, whether I am in the right or not, so that others who come along later get a better and more accurate picture of what was discussed. If i did misread your original commentary I do apologize. But having said that I am continuing the argument simply because I can and I find these kinds of things morbidly interesting.

 

"Like they do with BitCoin"

"Swear black and blue"

"security and transparency"

"then when that fails"

 

You are speaking of people in these threads reacting differently, to these types of news stories, regarding crypto. And specifically BitCoin and its blockchain. Which is inaccurate. Not on how people react, but the factual events. It's conflation on both sides, but your conflation is furthering THEIR conflation. Anyone who would see the failures of the exchanges as some kind of reflection of the technology putting it in need of defending is as wrong as those who would use those examples as some kind of argument against those technologies.

 

  Hide contents

Differently how? Once again, where is the blockchain analog to this situation? The analogous situations we are speaking of aren't connected to bitcoin or blockchain, they are the exchanges, which have had numerous failures, whose failures had nothing to do with the technology or security of the blockchains in question.

I'm really not sure I understand what you are trying to say here.  It really sounds like you believe there is contention in peoples understanding of the difference between crypto and conventional banking.  Apart from the actual real world application and some minor technical knowledge,  I don't think the technical differences by themselves are what is at contention here.  It's simply a reaction to how each system is represented on such forums that causes people to react the way they do.

 

Why would people rant and rave when their is a problem with bitcoin?  because many people tells us that bitcoin is immune to problems.

Why are there no snide remarks about the banks when this happens?  because no one is telling us this doesn't happen with banks, it is expected.

 

 

 

 

[HalGameGuru]

7 minutes ago, mr moose said:

I'm really not sure I understand what you are trying to say here.  It really sounds like you believe there is contention in peoples understanding of the difference between crypto and conventional banking.  Apart from the actual real world application and some minor technical knowledge,  I don't think the technical differences by themselves are what is at contention here.  It's simply a reaction to how each system is represented on such forums that causes people to react the way they do.

 

Why would people rant and rave when their is a problem with bitcoin?  because many people tells us that bitcoin is immune to problems.

Why are there no snide remarks about the banks when this happens?  because no one is telling us this doesn't happen with banks, it is expected.

 

What problems have there been and what ranting and raving? 

 

Are there not snide remarks when this happens to banks? While I personally wasn't very snide in my delivery my comment on scrubbing tapes before moving them could easily have been delivered in a snide manner. And I wouldn't say it is expected with banks, I doubt many people would use most banks if they were told it was expected that their personal or account information would be set free in the wilds from time to time. It is a massive failing, bank or not. And once again, has not had an analogous occurrence in crypto. Only with exchanges, which are more akin to these banks than to crypto itself.

[mr moose]

24 minutes ago, HalGameGuru said:

What problems have there been and what ranting and raving? 

 

Just about any thread that has anything to do with bitcoin contains multitudes of posts ranting and raving about the glorious future of bitcoin and how FIAT currency needs to die in a hole (you'll note that there is little support for banks holding the power).  A quick search should show you how prolific such opinions are on the topic.  

 

24 minutes ago, HalGameGuru said:

 

Are there not snide remarks when this happens to banks? While I personally wasn't very snide in my delivery my comment on scrubbing tapes before moving them could easily have been delivered in a snide manner. And I wouldn't say it is expected with banks, I doubt many people would use most banks if they were told it was expected that their personal or account information would be set free in the wilds from time to time. It is a massive failing, bank or not. And once again, has not had an analogous occurrence in crypto. Only with exchanges, which are more akin to these banks than to crypto itself.

We are a tech-centric forum of enthusiasts, most of us are under no illusion about the security and vulnerability of all data holding institutions.  The conversation on these forums follow on in that mindset.    It is not really fair to hold posts on this forum to account because everyday people outside of this forum have a somewhat naive view of technology.