Snippings

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Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have requested the US Department of Justice’s help in probing a case involving a bank manager who was swindled into transferring $35m to criminals by someone using a fake AI-generated voice.

From Criminals use fake AI voice to swindle UAE bank out of $35m • The Register.

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But I do think it’s worth remembering that, over the last six months, there were basically four kinds of content doing well on the platform: Right-wing pundits, K-Pop blogs, the occasional NPR story, and years-old posts about animals from weird content farms. And none of these are actually getting a lot of interactions.

From Pawsome Animal Stories – by Ryan Broderick – Garbage Day:

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Of the transactions that fail following a payment request, CMSPI figures show that 20% are “false declines”. These are good customers, with sufficient means to pay, who are prevented from doing so.

From SCA: EU failure average of 26% leads to e-commerce losses of €82 billion:

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Eftpos Australia has signed up Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Coles, Woolworths, Azupay, Beem It and Merchant Warrior to support the rollout of its new QR payments platform, eQR.

From Eftpos signs up banks, fintechs and merchants for eQR roll out:

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For some including France and Germany, the payments initiative is also the best antidote to slow progress on launching a digital euro.

The Bundesbank and the Banque de France have urged EU policymakers not to get too fixated with the ECB’s experiments to introduce a central bank digital currency — a process that’ll take years. They say instant payments through EPI could be less than a year away.

From European banks debate rival to US payment giants – POLITICO:

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Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin criticized El Salvador president Nayib Bukele on Friday for forcing businesses in the country to adopt bitcoin. Buterin also called out “Bitcoin maximalists” for supporting Bukele.

From Buterin calls out ‘Bitcoin maximalists’ for supporting El Salvador president.

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“However, additional policy measures, some requiring legislative change, are likely to be needed to mitigate the financial stability risks stemming from concentration in the provision of some third-party services.”

Measures should include an ability to designate some third parties as ‘critical’, meaning they would be required to meet ‘resilience’ standards which would be regularly tested.

From New Rules Needed to Deal With Risks From Cloud Computing: Bank of England:

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Turning first to Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Carr questioned what digital identity means to Mohanty, and about the most exciting developments being seen in the space.

Mohanty explained that throughout Singapore’s journey in the space, identity has been adopted in a digital-first manner in light of the digital economy.

He added that ‘Singpass’ is one of four elements of Singapore’s foundational digital infrastructure, comprising: the trusted digital identity, a trusted data exchange platform, a highly interoperable payment system, and a data consent system.

From Sibos 2021: Digital identity for an interoperable and accessible future:

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An F.B.I. affidavit described the Toebbes as employing somewhat sophisticated encryption methods but extremely sloppy practices as they communicated with who they thought were representatives of a foreign power but turned out to be F.B.I. agents.

From Navy Nuclear Engineer Attempted Espionage, FBI Says – The New York Times:

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They insisted on careful use of cryptocurrency and encrypted their messages, but they were lured into depositing the information, usually on small digital cards, at sites where they could be easily observed.

From Navy Nuclear Engineer Attempted Espionage, FBI Says – The New York Times:

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