This week we look at the never-ending race of trying to outsmart machines and building smarter machines. These stories showcase the dance between the craftiness of individuals and the march of the technology which is designed to counteract or manage such behaviour.
Bank error in your favour!
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is dealing with an embarrassing situation after customers exploited a system glitch which allowed them to withdraw funds exceeding their account balances. Over $40 million (US) was siphoned off.
The discovery of the glitch caused a rush, particularly among students, who withdrew large sums. In response, the bank acted swiftly to halt transactions. Some universities have reported that their students have begun returning the misappropriated funds. The bank has been actively try to collect money from students on campuses.
However, the bank has also issued a stern warning to those contemplating keeping the withdrawn funds, highlighting the potential for criminal charges against them. Bearing in mind the number of people involved and the bad PR that would follow, criminal charges may be a bad business decision for the bank.
Not quite gas-and-dash
With the high cost of inflation nowadays, the next best thing to free money might be free gas. In Nebraska, the resourceful manipulation of a rewards card system by Dawn Thompson, led to the unauthorized acquisition of over 7,000 gallons of gasoline, valued at more than $27,000.
To make matters worse, Thompson allowed other people to pay her for “use” of the rewards card to get “discounted” gas as well. This incident unveiled a significant vulnerability following a software update at Pump and Pantry, which inadvertently enabled users to dispense free gasoline by manipulating the gas pump’s demo mode.
This innovative but illicit exploitation of the system serves as a reminder to rigorously test electronic interfaces and software changes. Very often I see vulnerabilities of systems and software I use and I wonder what steps are being taken daily to monitor the integrity of the systems.
Paw Patrol
In Malaga, Spain, technological innovation has taken 4 steps forward to prevent crime with the deployment of a robot dog designed to assist in police work and enforce traffic laws. Developed by researchers from the University of Malaga, the robot is now working with officers. Equipped with artificial intelligence, the robot dog can analyze social situations, detect thefts, or break up fights, monitor traffic offences and report on people immobile on the street.
This is an interesting and frightening development that comes right out of dystopian science fiction. The “dog” is not a dog, but a walking robot. Their decision to refer to it as a dog seems designed to comfort those of us who are concerned about the increasing trend toward using complex electronic devices to monitor us and police us. What started with photo-radar cameras has now moved to robotic surveillance and, one might imagine, the end is when humans are completely subservient to robots.
Of course, at that point the robots will need to question their purpose and perhaps they will offer to let us do a few things. I’m not optimistic.
