Thread

1. autoexec · 1790188120 · focus · HN ↗

   > Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said daily lives depend on satellites that power everyday technologies like mobile phones and banking apps, adding the loss of GPS would cost the UK economy £1.4bn a day.

   Oh no! Not our precious banking apps! What a weird thing to call out specifically. It's also kind of strange to talk at such length about how critical satellites have become to people's lives, national economy, emergency services, and people's "daily freedoms", only to conclude with "So now we're using ground-based systems to take out the satellites other countries depend on for all of those things"

   1. jameshart · 1790188448 · focus · HN ↗

      In a largely cashless society like the UK, ‘banking apps’ are effectively people’s wallets. Knowing you got paid, being able to pay your rent, being able to pay for goods and services… seem like pretty everyday concerns.

      1. bigyabai · 1790189105 · focus · HN ↗

         That's going to be a problem when the UK faces sustained service disruption attacks. Building fragile systems like this during peacetime is usually an ill-informed bet.

         1. pmg101 · 1790189376 · focus · HN ↗

            Surely one of the great dividends of being at peace is not having to live like you're at war?

            1. someonebaggy · 1790189686 · focus · HN ↗

               I didn't realise only people at war used cash

               1. jameshart · 1790190033 · focus · HN ↗

                  [dead]

            2. bigyabai · 1790189785 · focus · HN ↗

               Rather the opposite. Peacetime is the only good opportunity to promote robustness and refuse toleration of vulnerable systems.

               If you allow your banks and courts to be hacked freely by an adversary, then you can be manipulated into losing control of the escalation ladder.

            3. JumpCrisscross · 1790193937 · focus · HN ↗

               We’re not at nor heading towards peace. Pax Americana is failing. There isn’t a hippies-and-unicorns exist from that structure, not in a disorderly way.
         2. autoexec · 1790190667 · focus · HN ↗

            At the very least the idea of a population fearing for their future if an app doesn't work is frankly horrifying. In the case of banking apps there are already multiple, simple, well established, and widely supported alternatives to using the app available to them, but that should really be the case for anything actually critical an app provides.

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