reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Ever work in a Bank's IT department? Didn't think so.
I have. Three different banks. You are quite wrong about your assessment.
Don't use T-1? half right. T-1 connections are too slow for many systems, so faster T-carriers are used when appropriate. Individual branches would
have no need for even a T-1 connection. They used to use ISDN leased lines to the branches but that is pretty old technology these days, not certain
what they use now, possibly ADSL or maybe fiber optic. Between data centers Banks have very tight service level agreements between their various
systems and they will use the fastest biggest capacity pipes they can get. I'd be willing to bet that T-carrier was 'invented' specifically for
Banks, but the Airlines might disagree with me.
Hack a T-carrier? Not bloody likely, and if you do you will just find the strongest encryption in existence. (yes I know, everything is crackable
given enough computer power and time).
DOS based? wrong again. If there is one thing you can be sure of, it is that Banks will never use software or hardware that is out of support for
critical systems. Back office systems that "just work" may hang around for a while if nobody has to hassle with it, but a DOS based system is
laughable.
It is true that banks don't upgrade their systems and hardware every other month, but most hardware will be upgraded/replaced every three years or
so.
Don't use wireless? Half true at least. Certainly not for branch platform stuff or at the Computer center, but quite possibly for 'normal' office
stuff.
For the most part, Banks security systems are the best available outside of Military/Intelligence grade. Almost all mistakes resulting in a security
breach are customer caused. But when the occasional screw up happens it can be quite spectacular.
Most IT Programmers wouldn't know how to program banking systems? Half right maybe. Most programmers don't work for Banks, and banking platform
systems and ATM systems are highly specialized systems. The generic platforms are purchased from IBM or Seimans or whoever, and customised for the
Bank's operations. Backoffice stuff, like loan processing, general ledger, and management reporting will almost certainly be on SAP a computer
package used by virtually every large company in the world, so there are a lot of people that can program its internal language called ABAP. And SAP
can be programmed with Java too, but 'most' IT Programmers don't know Java either (just a very large number). Customer Management Systems are, for
the most part, written in Java these days, if the Bank customizes it for themselves. Human Resources will be either from SAP or Oracle (there are a
few others), and these systems are used by the majority of large companies.
The bottom line is that there are a lot of people that can program Banking systems. Specialist systems will have specialist programmers that are
trained in the specific systems. However, systems that use standard languages and techniques predominate, so most IT programmers will not be out of
their depth.
1980's terminal mindset? Hardly. You won't find any dumb terminals at any bank branch. They will almost certainly be stripped down Windoze based
machines running specific branch platform front end programs, though in some cases that could be a Java applet running in a browser . There will be no
email, no minesweeper, no connection to the internet so they won't be hackable. Even old applications built with CICS and IMS that used to send IBM
3270 terminal data streams just need to be pointed at a new terminal terminal type in the terminal controller program to send an HTML stream instead.
[edit on 3/11/2009 by rnaa]
[edit on 3/11/2009 by rnaa]
Be careful!
