Cyber Security — How Not To Do It?

Halifax Bank please don’t do this again. First advice is for free!

Cyber Security. Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Context

As an experienced programmer and long time IT security expert, I developed this extra sense, which alarms me every time I see issues with any IT system. It’s like a curse — you open a web browser or an app — and the suddenly you see it: lack of testing, bugs, security issues… all in production! Come on — it’s not rocket science, isn’t or is it… you can’t be that bad, can you?? We are all software professionals, aren’t we?

To the point, this time I had questionable opportunity to deal with Halifax Bank as I requested some annual statements of my mortgage. You would say: how simple this can be and how this can be even a problem? You log on to your online banking and go to statements, select dates and download statements for given time period. Right!? Wrong!

It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature

First of all, in Halifax — you can view last 12 months only — why? No one knows. They have hardcoded 12 months in their online system. You can’t go back. Obviously, they have all past records and they are happy to send it via standard post — but what’s the point? Have you not heard of environment, and cost saving. I only need electronic copy and that’s why I…