Press release January 30, 2001

TV report ARD-Ratgeber – Science Fiction Thriller?
Alarmists now also in public TV?

Everything is relative - even Albert Einstein knew that. Unfortunately, the editors of the self-help TV program "ARD-Ratgeber" obviously have not heard of it yet.

Hands off online banking. The public has been warned repeatedly. On Sunday, January 28, ARD-Ratgeber presented the most frightening horror scenarios to be the norm – in spite of protests from people who really know their business.

Imagine you could simply use your – probably average – computer knowledge to break into any computer, spy out all data like passwords, account number, PINs and TANs and use them to transfer loads of money onto an account of your choice. Wouldn't that be great?

But that's not all. According to the TV report, it is not at all complicated to create biometric encryption systems at home and get rich this way. Face scanning, finger print recognition, iris scanning – no problem at all.

So, never have your picture taken with a digital camera. The photographer could use it to make contact lenses at home with exactly your iris. Then he could go to the most up-to-date cash dispenser with eye scanning and use your "contact lens eyes" to withdraw money from your account. Possibly he even simulates the blood flow within the iris in real-time and the deception is perfect. That's terrible.

According to the ARD report, even single-use TANs can be intercepted and used again for debiting large sums (i.e. multiple-use) – that's really new and dangerous.

The presenter gave an example where somebody used his credit card for shopping by passing on his data per telephone. How did he know that his credit card number had been stolen on the internet? Surely he would never send his credit card information via internet. He probably forgot that he gave his credit card into the hands of waiters and shop assistents numerous times with a clear conscience. All they had to do was to copy down the information or simply keep the receipt. All these possibilities seemed to be too simple for the ARD report – copying iris scans is definitely more worth a warning.

Hands off online banking! However, the number of victims is left out completely. But according to the ARD report, 10 million Germans are actively using online banking. The internet is so dangerous, and none of these 10 million users seems to know about it, therefore they have to be warned. Thank you.

Of course, a lot is possible, and everything is relative. You could be struck by lightning or die in your sleep, but it is nonsense to warn against sleeping. Originally, the internet was developed for secure data transmission in case of a nuclear war. However, it is more likely that somebody might build a nuclear bomb at home than somebody breaking into your computer at home to withdraw money from your account. Even the ARD-Ratgeber will not be able to stop the progress. What a pity that some people are going to take this nonsense for reality.

The challenge, advertised by NUTZWERK:
We pay DM 10,000 for stealing a TAN

The first person who breaks into our company's online banking system, steals the necessary information and a TAN and uses them to withdraw DM 10,000 (about 5,000 euros) from one of our business accounts can keep the 10,000 marks.

The challenge starts today and ends on 2001/03/01. Employees of Nutzwerk and our house banks, their relatives and friends are excluded.