Security vs. customer service?

I want to close a Fidelity mutual fund account and put the funds in an Ameritrade account.  In this day and age one would think it would only involve a a few minutes of typing on each company’s website.  It sure would beat having a check mailed (3 days minimum), taking the check to a bank, and writing another check to the other company.

One, Fidelity would not recognize the routing and account numbers of my local bank account.  Although Fidelity would allow a transfer to another brokerage, it wanted a routing number.  I could find no routing number for Ameritrade.  Of course, using Google I found it as I was writing this paragraph.  The Google summary gives the routing number.

Two, Ameritrade wanted me to print out a form and fill it in by hand.  And of course, include a copy of my latest statement.  Given all that paper, I would probably take it to the Post Office to get the correct postage.

Three, I went back to the “horse and buggy days” and asked Fidelity to mail me a check.  When the check arrives, I’ll take it to my bank.  When the check clears than I will send the fund electronically to Ameritrade.

So, I could have saved myself much time and hair pulling if I had gone with plan three instead.

And some people have the gall to complain about government inefficiency.  Many government organizations are far more efficient than many corporations.  The government will get the check to me quite well, thank you.

Who is the problem: government or corporations?

The airlines causing long lines with all of their baggage fees; more people are using carry-on luggage rather than checked luggage.  Government is often blamed for not solving problems created by corporations; corporations who don't want to pay the taxes for government to operate efficiently.

Ironically, it was a corporate-sponsored Congress that took money from TSA for other purposes, and then forced the resignation of a TSA official.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/opinion/memorial-day-weekend-ranting.html.

I haven’t flown since 2008.  I had had it with small seats, long security lines, and so-so service.

I think the only way the airlines will change is when they lose business.  Unfortunately, more and more people want to fly somewhere for pleasure or business.  Increasing ticket sales and profits just convince the airlines that they are doing the right thing.

Banks, security, and ease of use

When we cut the cord and went wireless, we had a large number of problems including runaway data and bank access.

We solved the runaway data problem by cutting out automatic downloads and monitoring our usage.

Bank access is another problem.  Some banks put up a huge security wall, others just require an ID and a password from a known computer.  If you change computers, then they will send a text message to a known phone.  The huge security wall can be a real problem if you don’t have the “right” phone and the “right” browser.

You would think as more and more people go wireless, the banks would make it as easy as possible for depositors to access their systems.  Many people really don’t want to do the research to find out why they can’t access their bank.  And it is in the bank’s interest to have people bank online so that they need fewer tellers.

i bank at Republic Bank of Duluth.  I get all kinds of weird results including something like “If this error persists, contact the system administrator."  The long, long error code seems never to be the same and no phone number, email address, or feedback page is provided to contact the system administrator.

I have talked to a branch manager about this and she in turn called somebody in tech support.  The only thing they could tell me was that my provider, Consumer Cellular, was changing the IP address.  Consumer Cellular support says that CC is not changing the IP address.

I did figure out that I had the wrong cellular phone number in my account.  I changed that and things seemed to work for awhile.  Then the phone number went blank on my account!  I reset it again, and I have again sporadic success, more often not.

I have no such problems using Wi-Fi at coffee shops.  Can the banks ensure the security of every coffee shop’s Wi-Fi?

My wife banks at Pioneer Bank of Duluth.  She has no problem accessing her account through cellular data.  That is via Firefox on her Mac and Safari on her iPad. When I accessed her account on my MacBook via Firefox, the web page asked me to select a phone number for a text message.  When the text message came to my wife’s phone, I entered the number on my Mac and gained access to her account.

I might switch my funds to Pioneer if Republic doesn’t have a solution soon.  But as I don’t care for the format of Pioneer’s statements, I am also considering Members Co-operative Credit Union of Duluth (MCCU).  Also, I’m partial to co-operatives over corporations.

I had a long conversation with an MCCU representative and found out that their online banking doesn’t work with certain phones and browsers.  She had no information about access via Consumer Cellular.

I have decades of computer experience and sometimes relish unraveling problems.  Sometimes it seems I know less and less about more and more.  Think about all the people who are afraid their devices might crash if they push the wrong button.

If organizations really want people to access them online, you would think they would bend over backward to make it as simple as possible.  But no, they operate in their own little silo and expect all users to accept their way of doing things.

How many people do you know who would have problems figuring out half of what I have written above?  If I am confused by all that I have learned, how confused would many others be?

Terror as theatre

I heard a piece on a Swedish Radio program about terrorists not being generals but theatre producers.  They are not trying to win battles as put on theatre to gain maximum effect.  If we could only think of some way to make each of their productions a flop in their own eyes.

I followed up the information on http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=438.  The program interviewed Yuval Noah Harari, author of “the theatre of terror” in The Guardian, 2015-01-31.  Read the full article for more.

BYOD and corporate efficiency

"Call it a movement of sorts, but employees are increasingly ditching their company issued computers and smartphones in favor of using their own devices to get work done. One big reason: Their company's tech is, well, terrible."
- "BYOD or bust: How bad tech hurts companies", Cadie Thompson, CNBC, 2013-10-24.

However, read the full article about all the complexities companies face when employees use their own devices.

How not to write spam

I received the following message from "Amazon";

Important For Your Online Account Access . Action Suspended

this email send by Amazon

Dear Customer

During our usual security enhancement protocol, we observed multiple login attempt error while login in to your online amazon account. We have believed that someone other than you is trying to access your account for security reasons, we have temporarily suspend your account and your access to online amazon and will be restricted if you fail to update

Your first clue to an official-looking email being a spam is how bad is the English.  We all maik misteaks and other tipos, but the above is ridiculous.

Your second clue is where do the included links really go.  I find these by just putting the cursor over the links or dragging the message to a text editor program.  In Microsoft Outlook the first shows the link as a drop down.  In Apple's TextEdit the second shows the source code of the message.  You don't really need to know that much about HTML, but you can scan it for suspicious looking items.

Speaking of spam, this blog has a lull in reverse spam from Russia.  These reverse spammers may have moved to Ukraine.  In any case, the number of pageviews from the United States has gone up but not to the level I was receiving Russian "pageviews".  I hope the US pageviews are real human readers who enjoy what I have written.

Quotes of the day - security, law, and liberty

“One is that certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and (then-Attorney General) John Ashcroft.”

“And secondly that for this country at least, given the kind of obstreperous, populous, diverse country we are, law is the absolute essential. And when governments short-cut the law, it’s extremely dangerous.”

Anthony Lewis, former New York Times columnist, Associated Press Obituary, Duluth News Tribune 2013-03-26

Similar thoughts include:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"He that would live in peace and at ease, Must not speak all he know, nor judge all he sees."

Attributed to or written by Benjamin Franklin, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin.

Phishers are phools, but the phished are bigger phools

Most of us have heard that phishing and other scams are big business.  Given many of the errors of grammar, errors of spelling, and so on, it is hard to believe that enough people take them seriously.

I just started getting phrench phishing, and I think it is because at least one of two French speakers I've recently exchanged email with have had their address books hacked.

Even though I generally recognize spam from just the title or sender, I often take a peek at the contents.  I was surprised to see that one email supposedly in French may have had a Russian sender; it had securitй instead of sécurité!!

P.S. I did a search on securitй and got 598 hits.  It seems to be common usage in Russian to use this blended spelling of Latin and Cyrillic characters, both in a French context and a Russian context.

Freedom, democracy, security, and confusion

Most of us have seen the battle among those who think the internet should be one free playground, those who see it as a source of income, and those who see it as a tool to track criminals and terrorists. Many of us are just plain confused by what is really going on.

This little bit started with my intent to buy a couple of Swedish CDs as gifts. I have bought CDs from MegaStore.se before and tried to login to my account. I was told my username or password were wrong. I double checked my cheat sheet of passwords. I carefully watched my fingers. Still wrong. After several attempts I asked for my username and password to be sent to me.

Within minutes I received an email giving exactly what I had been typing. I tried again. Wrong. I cut and paste from the email. Wrong. I gave up and sent email (or is it emejl in Swedish) asking for help. Since it was after hours, I wouldn't get a reply until late Sunday, early morning in Sweden.

Meanwhile, I looked at all the help files and other interesting detours on the site. One was megablogg.se. It had a few interesting thoughts, but one that struck me was "2009 - året då internet dog?" or "2009 - the year when the internet died?"

It had a link to an article in Aftonbladet "138 - Mitt desperata fem-i-tre ragg, Lisa Magnusson om EU:s telekompakt och framtidens internet"

I'm already in linguistic trouble, I never heard of "fem-i-tre ragg". I looked it up yesterday, but didn't make much sense of it. Anyhow, 138 refers to a proposed European Union law about the internet, and Lisa Magnusson sees it as affecting the future's internet.

My rough translation gathers that she complains about the internet not being as free as it once was (that is, no cost access) and the internet being too regulated. I never knew the internet was free unless you were getting somebody else to pay for it, like at a university. Regulated? Yes and no. But hang on.

She writes that her MSN account was suspended because she used the words "Hitler" and "pedophile" in a chat room.

Now I'm getting in over my head in Swedish and look for some similar stuff in English. Even in English, it is very confusing. Yes, there are police and security authorities who want all data traffic to be retained for at least 30 days. But it is very hard to understand how much is actually being put into law or has even been put into law.

Even if it will not be put into law, think about how the more complicated laws become, the less the average person, or even legislature can understand the full implications of these laws. Just think about the original PATRIOT Act and how few legislators even read it.

And this is how freedom will be lost to security. When we become so afraid of something that we want the authorities to do anything to protect us, some authorities will do anything, even if it really winds up making us less secure.