Word: goldberg
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...seemed harmless enough. The Britain-based Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin sponsored a "Think Like a Thief contest, encouraging readers to compete for a ?100 ($215) prize by inventing plans for a computer-related fraud. But now there are international repercussions. In his winning entry, published in the Bulletin, Leslie Goldberg pinpointed an apparently fatal flaw in a new security technique recently proposed by major British banks and being considered by their foreign counterparts...
...Goldberg, a London computer security expert, had been analyzing the new system, which is called the Standard Test Key (STK). Like existing systems, it was designed to check the accuracy of messages that authorize the transfer of money from one account in a bank to another. In these messages, some information -such as the names of the banks, the date and the total amount to be transferred-is given a code number, assigned by one of several methods. These numbers are added up to give a number called the Test Key at the end of the message. Any error...
...What Goldberg discerned is that a little transposition could be profitable. The sum $975,191 would also result in the same two code numbers. But that would be $783,216 more than the $191,975 total of the amounts to be transferred to the three accounts. Thus, Goldberg figured, an electronic thief could add to the genuine message a fourth instruction: to transfer $783,216 to an account the thief had set up at Bank B just for that purpose. The STK code would be unchanged, and the bank would remain unsuspecting until it reconciled its account with the sending...
...Goldberg's discovery probably means that this STK will not be adopted as a standard in Britain or elsewhere. But existing systems are vulnerable too. Concludes Goldberg: "Anyone using a computer system today must take into account that the danger of fraud is very much there...
...Soviet Union and replacing them with food bought at low prices in depressed, postembargo U.S. markets. American prices are now about 12% below their January levels. These ploys are driving up the cost of grain for the Soviets, but they are not stopping the flow of food. Says Richard Goldberg, owner of a grain and feed elevator in Fargo, N. Dak.: "All you can say about the grain embargo is that it is forcing the Soviets to pay one hell of a price...