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Here, we consider an attack in which an adversary attempts to manipulate the behavior of energy consumers by sending fake discount notifications encouraging them to shift their consumption into the peak-demand period. Using Greater London as a case study, we show that such disinformation can indeed lead to unwitting consumers synchronizing their energy-usage patterns, and result in blackouts on a city-scale if the grid is heavily loaded…These findings demonstrate that in an era when disinformation can be weaponized, system vulnerabilities arise not only from the hardware and software of critical infrastructure, but also from the behavior of the consumers.

From How weaponizing disinformation can bring down a city’s power grid:

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Mr Koning has an intriguing theory as to why this might be so: he suspects that, with so many shops and restaurants closed as a result of the lockdown, crooks have fewer ways of laundering their ill-gotten money so must hold on to it.

From Daily chart – Why cash has been piling up during the pandemic | Graphic detail | The Economist:

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I’m fascinated by stories about what is “real” and what is “fake” and I’m also interested in stories about valid and bogus credentials such as academic qualifications (and being English, I have a particular obsession with stories about fake dentists). 

But the Court of Appeal has now reversed this decision, arguing that Andrewes had given ‘full value’ for the salary and benefits he received — even though he had obtained the roles fraudulently — and should not be punished twice for the same crimes.

Which all rather begs the question: did he actually need any qualifications to do his job in the first place?

From Questions raised after former builder used fake CVs to become an NHS boss and make £1million | Daily Mail Online:

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The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on building and testing a “hypothetical central bank digital currency”.

The two- to three-year project will begin by developing a CBDC for “wide-scale, general purpose use”, the Boston Fed says.

From Boston Fed and MIT collaborate on digital currency research – Central Banking:

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I cannot reveal what the loopholes are. But any bitcoin transaction needs verification. Maybe the ring bypassed the verifying process before taking the money
Superintendent Wilson Tam, cyber security and technology crime bureau
Police refused to elaborate further on precisely how the suspects had cheated the machines.
“I cannot reveal what the loopholes are. But any bitcoin transaction needs verification. Maybe the ring bypassed the verifying process before taking the money,” superintendent Wilson Tam Wai-shun of the cyber security and technology crime bureau said on Saturday.

From Police arrest three after six Hong Kong bitcoin ATMs pilfered for HK$230,000 in first-of-its-kind crime in the city | South China Morning Post:

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“In times of crisis like the one we are jumping into, the main issue is lack of liquidity, even when there is work to be done, people to do it, and demand for it,” says Paolo Dini, an associate professorial research fellow at the London School of Economics and one of the world’s foremost experts on complementary currencies.

From A Depression-Era Idea Gets a New Look: Local Money – Bloomberg:

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The pandemic has revised interest in a topic that has surfaced repeatedly over the years, and that is the issue of local and complementary currencies. In the UK, the Bristol Pound, the Brixton Pound, the Lewes Pound and many other experiments have sprung up and (just as they are elsewhere) to try to stimulate and regenerate local and regional trade and prosperity in response the changing economic circumstances.

We tend to think of currencies as being instruments of the nation state but that’s actually a recent invention in the great scheme of things. There’s no reason to see optimal currency areas as inviolable laws of nature rather than transitional borders under prevailing monetary and financial arrangements.

The decentralising nature of the new digital money technologies means, I think, that we should think more radically about the new opportunities. In a sense, both the Bitcoin maximalists and the central bankers are

Communites

To see where this might be going, some of you may remember a superb presentation by Gill Ringland (a former head of strategy at ICL amongst other things) back at our 2012 Digital Money Forum. Gill was talking about financial services a generation from now and explained at the time that in order to create scenarios for a generation from now, she found it useful to take into account the accelerating pace of change and therefore look two generations back to consider the asset classes managed by the financial services industry in 1930. These were broadly commodities, cash, equities and brains. Looking forward, she added a fifth asset class based on demographics for 2050.

Financial transactions are about the exchange of these asset classes. This is especially interesting in a city-centric context because, for example, a permit to reside in a desirable city could well become a key tradable commodity. Indeed, this view was reinforced in a recent FS Club discussion with eminent futurologists (including Gill), where the even more expansive view that cities might begin to dictate the policies and trajectories of the nation state was put forward. In this context, Gill’s prescient discussion of the “C50” (the organisation of the 50 richest city-states that will replace the G20 as the mechanism for “managing” the world economy) forms a solid narrative around future economic organisation. As Martin Wolf wrote in the FT some years ago “this is the age of cities, not of national economies” (going on to say that “it is high time London became a true city state”).

So why don’t we use these currencies already? Well, as a recent Bloomberg article discussing the renewed interest in complementary currencies noted, a key problem for them has been “finding a suitable way to cover operating costs”. This is where, we think, there might be a crossing of streams at last. On the one hand, the pandemic means that a great many people are looking toward city-centric means of exchange as a specific kind of complementary currency that may contribute to rebuilding economies, and on the other hand the technologies of money have advanced considerably in recent years as the electronic money evolutionary tree has grown and flourished. Brixton bank notes might be pretty, but a Brixton app makes more sense, especially in the post-pandemic contact-free retail environment of the future.

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Under the pilot, no organisation will be given access to government-held data and an individual must consent to having their data verified. The organisation checking the ID will simply receive a ‘yes or no’ answer confirming whether the document provided is valid.

From Innovative new pilot launched to speed up access to key services – GOV.UK:

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What role do fledgling innovations like digital identity have in the identification of payers and/or authentication of payments?

From Consumer protection: Driving innovation and competition in real-time payments | Payment Systems Regulator (PSR):

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To be clear, we are not encouraging innovation just for the sake of innovation, but for the benefits that innovation brings for everyone. To ensure exactly that, we need your help in answering these questions:

How can the PSR promote a choice of payment methods that suits the needs and preferences of people and businesses? 
What do we mean when we say innovation? Does innovation go further than technological advancement?
In thinking about the future of payment systems in the UK, what should the PSR’s role be?
Should we, other regulators and/or government play a pro-active role in spurring on innovation? Should we actively promote innovation in alternatives to existing payment methods?  If so, what should we do? 
Are there lessons we can learn from other countries experiencing innovation in payment methods? 
Is the UK ready to become a digital and/or card only society? Why (not)? 
Do you think the lockdown will have a lasting impact on the use of particular payment systems?
Should we intervene to make sure (certain) merchants accept a number of different payment methods.  Should we make sure (certain) consumers can access their preferred payment method?
Should we, other regulators and/or government intervene to make sure we do have a functioning cash system, and if so, why? Has the current Covid-19 pandemic influenced the response to this question? 
Should we maintain a cash system at any cost? How expensive would it have to be to maintain an operating cash system for it not to be worthwhile? 
What does the current lockdown situation tell us about the need for cash?  Have consumers’ preferences changed?   Has it told us anything about the appetite for alternative ways of paying?  Has it spurred or sped up innovation?  What are the implications for the future?

From Innovation and future payment methods | Payment Systems Regulator (PSR):

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