I do not know Randall Gross personally, and it was anyway no part of my intent to impugn the competence of any particular mainframe security specialist. I indeed made it clear that I judge that the effectiveness of such groups varies widely.
I am nevertheless unrepentent about my view that most of these groups are no great shakes technically, bureaucratically orient[at]ed, and ineffective. I am not sure just how 'staggering vacations in financial institutions' dissolves collusions. It may well prevent them during the interval when either of, say, two colluders is vacationing; but there would still be ample opportunity for collusive misbehavior during the the nine months (assuming six-week non-overlapping vacations for each of two colluders) when both would be present. Indeed, the historical rationale for these longish bank-officer vacations|holidays has been that they provided opportunities for the detection of fraud, not that they prevented it; and for this purpose simultaneous vacations for two colluding officers would be more effective. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
