UKC

How do banks keep records of everything, and how resilient are the systems against a disaster? Say NK, or wherever does drop a nuclear bomb on London, will HSBC still know my bank balance the next day, and that I spent £3.21 is Smith's an hour before the bomb?

In reply to MG:

Banking systems tend to have extraordinary levels of back up and duplication including geographic separation. E.g. Allianz have primary data centres in a few places in the US, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Trivandrum (India) and more across Asia... Data is stored for the UK business in duplicates in Paris, Frankfurt and Sacraments.

It doesn't mean it's impossible to lose evrything, but it greatly reduces the risk

In reply to MG:

My understanding is that in the case of a nuclear bomb all electronic records would be wiped clean. I remember reading an article at the end of the cold war where western experts were dismissing Soviet equipment as out of date and old fashioned until someone pointed out that in the event of a nuclear incident, the West would be incapacitated but the Soviets would continue to function.

Al

In reply to GridNorth:

Yes, it was this article that prompted my questions
https://www.economist.com/news/world-if/21724908-huge-potential-impact-rich...

Basically if the sun misbehaves, we are screwed.

In reply to MG:

Bit optimistic about your average rock climber rescuing trapped lift passengers. If I was in such a situation I'd rather have a potholer with a wire ladder than someone stood at the bottom of the shaft making encouraging noises about foot placement as I tried to clamber out.

I'm off to make friends with a Mormon now (they have to keep 12 months of food at home, in case Jesus comes back or something).

In reply to GridNorth:
The records should physically survive but it doesn't matter if ones and zeroes say you are a billionaire when you are trying to barter for some potatoes.

In reply to MG:
Hacking (schoolkids, geeks or nation states), sheer incompetence and fraud are more immediate threats.

"Equifax had 'admin' as login and password in Argentina" <-- hopefully the banks are better!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41257576

Banks are showing an interest in blockchain as a distributed ledger means a financial institution can't just fake the ones and zeroes of wealth. I think faking the ones and zeroes is effectively what Bernie Madoff did - the profitable transactions were simply made up.

In reply to MG:




Oversimplification alert...

The sun shouldn't do anywhere near the level of damage as an EMP. An EMP would induce damaging voltages in most things, a solar event would only do so in the power grid. Which trips and gets reset.

I'm upgrading my critical loads backup system this winter from 4 kWh batteries, and an 800 W inverter backed by a 1.5 kw petrol generator and 200 W solar PV to 10 kWh batteries, a 1.6 kW inverter/charger, 1.8 kW of solar and the same genny. I'm also fitting a rainwater purification system to drinking quality to my 1500 L rainwater tank. The solar system will do dual duty as load shifting for self consumption and backup.

As the article alludes this would just get us looted/murdered if things went really wrong...

In reply to wintertree:

Impressive. So, where abouts do you live?

...erm, exactly where abouts?

In reply to MG:

HSBC's data centres are at Wakefield and Barnsley, so your money will fine if NK attacks London. And if anyone fires missiles at Yorkshire then Geoff Boycott will simply swat them away with a stick of rhubarb.

Midland Bank did have a data centre in an old and rather shoddy biscuit factory in Brent, but had already migrated away when the IRA blew the doors off in 92.

In reply to GridNorth:

>My understanding is that in the case of a nuclear bomb all electronic records would be wiped clean
An EMP blast has a limited range.
If you're close enough to be affected, you'd probably be more worried about the nearby mushroom cloud.

As for data security, banks are quite good at it. As well as all the online data, there will still be backups taken each night and kept in a vault. You can buy space in ex coldwar nuclear bunkers for just this purpose. (You can rent space in Greenham common, for example.)
It's also usual practice to have 'hot standby' data centers. All the data from data center 1 is mirrored in real time to data center 2 (or indeed multiple data centers). The golden rule for disaster recovery sites is: don't locate them in the same place as your primary site. The backup data center(s) can be in a bunker, in another country, on the other side of the planet.

In reply to dread-i:

I know all of that I was heavily involved with it before I retired. I was making a general observation.

Al

In reply to MG:


My guess is in the event of nuclear war the banks will lose your money but HMRC will remember your income tax.

On the upside you wont care because you'll be dead.

Blockchain technology could make financial records extremely resilient but my guess is that like most disruptive technologies it is more likely to destroy the big banks than be adopted by them.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I went into mone of Midland's Datacentres near Sheffield in the early 90s - it involved using a tunnel to get in through what I was told at the time were missile proof "walls" - more like some kind of dam wall.