HSBC CIO talks bank tech

Most of Australia's major banks are just beginning massive IT projects which will see them refresh their core banking systems, but HSBC's Australian CIO, Brenton Hush, says the global bank's local operation is already ahead, reports ZNet.

HSBC's core banking refresh project was completed in May this year, Hush says, after work that took the better part of 24 months.

It was made easier by the bank's ever-greening of its technology, says Hush. "I'm under heavy pressure to ever-green our technology, so you don't end up with 10- to 15-year-old servers," he says.

As Russia and Georgia teeter between cease-fire and war, hackers continued an onslaught against Georgian Web sites, e-mail and communication services, states Star-Telegram.

About 20 government, banking and media sites were off-line Thursday, says Scott Borg, director of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, an independent research group that advises the government.

Some sites have fled to hosting computers in other countries and even to Atlanta, where they continue to take digital fire.

A partnership between Ebookers, an online booking agency and banking giant RBS is set to expand in the coming months into a fully functional booking Web site for customers, states Travolution.

An existing agreement between the pair allows customers to book via the Ebookers call centre and use loyalty points for discounts on products.

It is hoped that a full ebookers.com-branded site for RBS customers will be launched within the next three months.