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basilikumyesterday at 2:52 PM2 repliesview on HN

With fintech that surprises me not the slightest bit. Financial institutions are filled to the brim with unbelievably incompetent people. A large part of it is probably willful ignorance, too. It's often truly staggering that a financial company I interact with in day to day live is even able to exist. That's until I remember that all the others are just as incompetent.

"Major European Payment Processor" really just translates to "Major European Incompetence Center".


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oasisbobyesterday at 3:41 PM

With a broad statement like this, I would usually just suggest this is inflammatory and surely overstated.

However, I've also worked at a financial institution which used core systems by Harland Financial Systems. Their "encryption" for data in transit from teller workstations to the core system was just a two byte XOR, and they sent the key at the beginning of the connection!

Was so unbelievable to be able to crack this in under a half-hour after noticing patterns in a PCAP. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

That fraud was good enough for our regulators and theirs, so I have no doubt the industry is filled with rotten incompetence through and through.

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yndoendoyesterday at 4:00 PM

There is plenty amount of incompetence in FAAMG. Notepad ....

Do Europe financial institutions have the same level of corruption as the USA? Such as a credit card company authorizing credit card transactions with incorrect expiration date to maximum profit, Bank of America? Or opening new accounts without consumer consent, Wells Fargo?

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