(May 18-20, 2005) The conference's primary objective was to provide a forum for discussion of many of the most critical issues related to the upcoming implementation of the Basel II Accord. Discussion topics included regulatory initiatives, such as the Quantitative Impact Study, the Loss Data Collection Exercise and AMA benchmarking initiatives; quantification issues, including modeling assumptions and scaling; and outstanding policy issues, such as the treatment of expected versus unexpected losses and home-host issues.

 

Conference slides slides are now online.

Within the Basel-II Framework

 

Source: (Jose Aparicio, Eser Keskiner) Our goal in writing this document is two-fold: To give a snapshot of the developments that are taking place in relation to the new Basel Accord and To increase awareness of some technical issues which will need to be taken into account in Basel-II related projects within Accenture. link

(Source: Slashdot, BBC) The BBC and the Register report that the UK Government's Department for Work and Pensions attempted to upgrade seven PCs from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, and ended up with BSODs on over 60,000 machines. I wonder if the National Health Service is regretting awarding Microsoft a £500 million contract now." link

(Source: The Register) The Rise of Machine - on wheels link

(Source: finextra, Feb 3, 2004) Settlement failures on Express II, the new overnight net processing system introduced by Italian depository Monte Titoli, are being blamed for a 50% plunge in government bond trading volumes. link

(Source: Spiegel Online)
link (DE)

(Source: ZDNet) The SCO Group filed lawsuits this week against DaimlerChrysler[?] and AutoZone, but the Unix seller's attorneys also had prepared a complaint against Bank of America, according to a document.

 

A Microsoft Word document of SCO's suit against DaimlerChrysler, seen by CNET News.com, originally identified Bank of America as the defendant instead of the automaker. This revision and others in the document can be seen through powerful but often forgotten features in Microsoft Word known as invisible electronic ink. link

(Source: Reuters) Nearly 50,000 customers were without power in San Francisco on Sunday following a substation fire that left one-third of the city in the dark and wreaked havoc on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

 

Brian Swanson, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.., said that at the peak of the power outage on Saturday evening, 119,000 business and residential customers had no electricity. link

A lady has taken impressive and very sad pictures on her trip through the death zone. The photo describtions are very good. link

(Source: journalnow) A brief electrical outage apparently caused by a bird on a power line knocked out electricity to the Los Angeles International Airport control tower and disrupted air traffic yesterday morning.

 

Eighty to 100 flights had to hold in the air, circle or stay on the ground at other airports, said Donn Walker, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. Some departures from Los Angeles were also delayed briefly.

 

The bird apparently managed to ground the line, which re-energized moments later, the department said in a statement. But despite the immediate restoration of the power supply, the effect on the tower lasted longer. link

(Source: BBC) Thousands of air passengers are facing delays after an air traffic control computer failure caused flights to be suspended across the UK.

National Air Traffic Services said flights were grounded so that controllers could prioritise on planes in the air, but safety was unaffected.

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational again and flights are resuming.

Many airports are advising people to check in as normal.

Nats' Flight Data Processing System failed at around 0600BST for an hour.

More technical info in German from heise. link

 

(Source: Davis, Putnam) For the fourth year in a row, most federal agencies have received low grades for failing to protect their computer networks from hackers and other cyberterrorists, according to a computer security report card issued today by the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology. article

(Source: Boston Globe) Computer users and security experts had nearly a week's warning to prepare for the impact of the Mydoom software worm. It wasn't enough.

 

The worm, which swept across the Internet last week, delivered its payoff yesterday. Infected machines launched an attack that shut down the website of SCO Group Inc., a Utah software company that has drawn the ire of Linux advocates for its dispute with IBM Corp. over the free operating system. link Armin: On Tuesday Mydoom.B will attack Microsoft, but it seems to have spread much less so far.

 

About 140,000 subscribers living in western Norway were without electricity as a power failure hit virtually all of Hordaland county and parts of Sogn og Fjordane. Power company BKK said that the area from the Hardanger Fjord to Sogne Fjord was affected. link

 

(Source: Drew Cullen, The Register) EDS stands to lose a 10-year deal worth £4bn-£5bn to manage the Inland Revenues computer systems in punishment for the fiasco surrounding the introduction of tax credits last year. Hundreds of thousands of people went without payments, resulting in short-term hardship for many families on low incomes.

 

So far so bad. Then the public purse took a hammering with the Inland Revenue overpaying tax credits to the tune of £2bn. In a report last month, The Public Accounts Committee placed most of the blame for the cock-ups on EDS software. article