Monday, June 27, 2005

More on Data (in)security

There are atleast two reasons why we should not worry too much:1)In a country where an army commander would sell war plans for $500,anything can happen.2)An inexorable law of Globalisation is :"A problem that occurs somewhere in the globe can manifest itself anywhereelse also."It is too early to forget what happened in CardSystemsSolutions where data (encashable data) relating to 40 million credit cards were compromised.The famous courier UPS lost unencrypted data of Citicorp customers.Prior to this,Time Warner lost precious data concerning its ex-employees in a similar fashion.The present scandal will be under discussion till the next one occurs.Another law of Globalisation is :"The time gap between any two successive global scandals is progressively on the decrease."In a different context,it is interesting to compare two parallel events namely S.Korean Posco's $10 billion investment (the largest one-time FDI in India sofar) and CNOOC's $18 billion bid for Unocal.Posco is investing in the Paradip steel project in return for a 30-year right to export alumina-rich iron ore from India.This was well received in India barring some resistance from left fringes.But the mainstream US seems to be paranoid about CNOOC's offer.Tatas who would be adversely affected by the Posco move,maintained a dignified silence.Chevron,onthe other hand,is throwing tantrums.To top it all,Unocal's reserves are mainly in the Asia-Pacific region.The US energy system,surprisingly 50% dependant on coal,benefits less than 1% from Unocal.Srivarahan

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