A secure democratic Net is a fundamental right

sometimes events outside are that big that they will have a global impact and so on IT and so on the way we treat risk and security - as a concept and in the way we use it. I must say I have now some problems have any attention for a computer virus or new sql script. There is so much at stake.

from the new york times  "Even as Washington moves to bail out financial institutions, the fortunes of Washington Mutual have spiraled downward. On Wednesday, Standard & Poor’s, a major credit rating agency, downgraded Washington Mutual’s debt further into junk territory, citing the increased chance that the company might have to be split up to facilitate a sale.

Washington Mutual insists that it is well-capitalized and has adequate access to funding and noted “the rating actions do not affect the safety of customer deposits, which are insured up to the limits allowed” by the federal government.

Brad Russell, a Washington Mutual spokesman, declined to comment on speculation about a possible sale. Still, shares fell 94 cents, or 29 percent, to $2.26 a share on Wednesday, leaving them down 83 percent this year."

I only have to change the name of the bank....

a few hours later it was taken over by the feds and handed over to another bank... this is how fast things can go nowadays

I have seen this before in my life when the different European currencies were under attack and one after another fell. It was only stopped when all the central banks said enough is enough and set up a strong line of defense that held. We now have the Euro. But there is no European defense of our banks and financial institutions. They are all on it on their own and it is each country for itself, even if their national banks are now bigger than all the financial reserves they each have individually.

We made the Euro to defend against valuta speculators. We now need an European Financial defense system to defend against financial-institution speculators. In fact we need to punish and outlaw that kind of speculation if you ask my opinion.

Bloomberg is showing a red headline 'credit quake' because new numbers show that banks don't even lend money to banks anymore (they take control of it, they don't lend money) and you have analysts coming on all the time who are all doom. When Lippens (Fortis) said a few months ago that there would be a financial meltdown when they took those drastic actions, he was being called all kinds of names. He was more right than even the worst predictions that were made a few months ago. And now Fortis is trying to sell whatever it can still sell. There is no problem they say but it is better to have more own cash at hand if needed. Because the markets don't lend anymore to anyone and the European Financial infrastructure has not foreseen this. They surely didn't foresee what Bloomberg now calls 'CREDIT QUAKE'

It sounds as firms on the internet. You are on your own. Don't count on anyone else.