Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

My “Failagain’s Island” talk was accepted at SOURCE Boston 2010 and I couldn’t be happier. This will be the first time giving this presentation but I hope it won’t be the last. Here are the details so far:

Failagain’s Island – The Perils of Banking in an Island Nation

According to Wikipedia, experts believe that as much as half the world’s capital flows through offshore centers. Tax havens have 1.2% of the world’s population and hold 26% of the world’s wealth, including 31% of the net profits of United States multinationals. You would expect that isolated offshore financial centers, such as Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Bahamas, would be exponentially more secure than your local bank branch due to the magnitude of money being protected – but you would be wrong.

Foreign nations, malicious attackers, and malware creators know that most tax havens, especially those located in small water-locked countries, are behind the times when it comes to security. This knowledge, combined with the amount of money that flows through the offshore financial centers, makes them juicy targets for major financial exploitation. The goal of this presentation is to dispel common security myths and provide detailed explanations of the risks associated with offshore banking. Let Andrew Hay, who was responsible for the implementation and monitoring of security controls at a major offshore bank, provide an in-the-trenches account of the security issues surrounding banking with an island nation.