Two-factor Authentication - Ineffective and Expensive

Reports from a recent e-Crime Congress in London have "rubbished" two-factor authentication as ineffective for the user and expensive to implement.

Although the technology is touted as the next generation of user security - and has been implemented by a number of banks here in New Zealand, in addition to remote access technologies such as Citrix - the experts are not impressed.

"There are a whole bunch of things that can go wrong with two-factor authentication," explained Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory, citing the 'man-in-the-middle' attack as one example of the technologies weaknesses.

Therefore, the issue of dubious online security remains and we must hope that the experts will provide a viable alternative to the current incarnation of "next generation security" in addition to pointing out its failings.

NZ Mobile Market About to Get Much Bigger

According to the NBR the mobile phone market will have at least three new entrants due to pending legislation relating to number portability.

Essentially the legislation will allow phone users to keep their mobile or home numbers when switching providers. The long standing coupling of the telephone numbers with the service provider has been cited as a key barrier to more competition in the market. With NZ based Orcon, Compass and Australian based M2 Telecommunications Group all signing deals with Vodafone to use its network to provide mobile phone services, the number of providers in the market will essentially double.

There is one remaining question, how will you know whether you are calling a Telecom or Vodafone mobile if the type of number (021 or 027) is no longer a reliable indicator? It's going to make those free minute and TXT messages hard to manage.

Is the New Zealand Telco Market About to Actually Get Competetive?

It has been noted in the local media (see the NZ Herald and Stuff stories) that TrustPower is gearing up to be an all-in-one service provider, after it's acquisition of the call centre company Pulse Business Solutions and the Oamaru-based telco CallSouth.

It looks like the relatively uncompetitive telco market could be in for a shake up with Trust Power's community relations manager Graeme Purches confirming the intention to move into the full-service telco space. This is good news for consumers and businesses alike as the New Zealand telco market could certainly do with the extra competition.

Telecom to Offer Guaranteed Broadband Services

The ability for organisations to truly rely on the quality of service delivered by their telco provider could almost be here. A requirement stipulated under the Telecommunications Amendment Act that was passed last year, requires Telecom to provide broadband with performance guarantees.

This looks to be a positive step for the internet-based services such as IP telephony and hosted applications (e.g. Google Docs & Spreadsheets), which require these sort of performance guarantees to be seriously considered by most organisations as a viable alternative to more traditional service models.

There are however already fears that this could mean a significant price increase for the consumer, given that Telecom will need to vastly improve parts of its network to provide these performance guarantees. It is likely these sort of fears will be just one of agenda items to be discussed at a workshop hosted by the Commerce Commission later this month.

Cometh the CRO

According to a survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit:

45 percent of companies have already appointed a CRO or equivalent, although the majority of them are concentrated in the financial services sector. However, the role is set to become more commonplace in other industries, with 24 percent of all firms planning to appoint a CRO in the next two years.

Interestingly, respondents identified regulatory risk as one of the top two threats to global business, along with reputational risk. (See "The rise and rise of reputational risk" at this Blog site).

The research indicates that top risk managers now play a central role in co-ordinating their firm's response to an unprecedented range of threats. The main benefit of appointing a CRO, according to 52 percent of executives in the survey, is that they can expand risk management to address more risks.

We (Datasouth Corporate) have long since held that the risk professional must undertake to enhance corporate decision making within their organisation, and to truly integrate "risk" from the project to the boardroom. The report supports this when it states:

They (the CRO) also enable the business to make better investment decisions, in particular by bringing a more effective approach to measuring and comparing risk and reward.

Further on it comments:

Sixty one percent of respondents believe that the ability to understand broad business issues is a critical skill for an effective risk manager.

The rise of the may CRO not quite upon us in all its glory in this part of the world (Australia and New Zealand), but it is only a matter of time . . .