Jeremy Clarkson doing his bit for security awareness

by AndyC on Jan.07, 2008, under Musing, Security, Technology

Computer Security, my professional field, has hit the headlines over the last few weeks. The loss of 25 million bank records by the British government is remarkable for the scale of the loss, and the ease with which it happened. But I think the importance of is has been driven (no pun intended) home by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

Clarkson, in his usual tactful style, commented that he couldn’t see what the fuss was about, and published his own bank account details in the newspaper. Details here.

Predictably someone used them to create a direct debit from his account – to a charity, rather than themselves.

An interesting point here is that the bank clearly acted upon instructions other than those of the account holder, which me wonder how carefully banks check things like Direct Debit mandates. Not very, I suspect. Will they cough up the money that was stolen as a result of them acting on false instructions, or will they blame Clarkson for being a loudmouth?

The good thing to come out of this, hopefully, is people realising how serious this is!