Financial firms up IT recruitment

Financial services firms are recruiting more IT professionals this summer than a year ago, and they are looking for strong programming, database and operating system skills to keep their real-time banking and trading systems up and running, says Bloomberg Business Week.

"Technology is extremely important on Wall Street, where they have vast quantities of data that needs real-time analysis," says Constance Melrose, MD of eFinancialCareers, an online listing of available jobs in the banking, trading and money management fields.

"We have a lot of clients who are looking for technologists who can handle the speed, quantity and precision of that information," she adds.

A network of thousands of compromised computers that is being used to harvest online banking details has been uncovered in the UK, BBC reports.

The so-called botnet is made up of around 100 000 machines, according to researchers in Israel.

Cyber criminals in Eastern Europe, who have control of the machines, are collecting personal data from the PCs.

This includes login details for online banks, credit and debit card numbers and other passwords.

Singapore has ordered DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia's largest bank, to improve its computer systems after its automatic teller machines shutdown for seven hours last month during maintenance by IBM, writes SMH.

The island's central bank, known as the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said that DBS must set aside about 230 million Singapore dollars ($170 million) of regulatory capital to cover operating risks and stop relying on a sole provider for information technology services.

"DBS Bank did not exercise sufficient oversight of the maintenance, functional and operational practices and controls employed by IBM," the central bank said.