“WHAT WERE WE THINKING?” - ITEMS OFTEN OVERLOOKED IN DISASTER PLANNING

During the last decade and a half, we have built disaster-recovery/business-continuity plans for hundreds of diverse organizations. In each of these situations, we have found that all planners, no matter how experienced and systematic they may be, tend to overlook certain items. Some of these are "small but crucial" items which simply add insult to injury when disaster occurs, but other can threaten the survival of the organization.

These overlooked items fall into a number of general areas:

- missing things "too close to see"
- failure to track out-of-the-ordinary situations
- intuitively assuming how other departments function
- forgetting "unforgettable" events
- ignoring "external" factors
- not keeping “outside” emergency organizations up-to-date

- missing things "too close to see"

An example of this oversight, which we have seen in almost 100% of the facilities we have examined, is the vulnerability of network and telephone "panels" to falling water. Most facilities have a panel on a wall where the telephone wires enter the building. Typically this is not covered and in the event of water coming down the wall, they "burn out" and are destroyed.

Similarly, most rack-mounted computer "networking" hubs are also not covered. This is in order to reduce heat buildup. However, they are typically not shielded from nearby sprinkler heads or simply from water coming from above the ceiling and following the cables down to the rack. When they are hit by water, they also burn out.

Another overlooked item we have frequently seen, particularly in older buildings, is the need for a key to exit a building via a locked door. Often government institutions which are also open to the public, lock their doors but remain open for many hours after their public hours have ended. Every exit door needs to be operable from the inside without a key.

Another frequent condition is the use of non-fireproof safes to protect key documents. All safes are burglar-proof, however, most are not insulated, and in a fire, the contents are incinerated.

- failure to track out-of-the-ordinary situations

Many disaster plans become fixated only on full-blown disaster events, rather than trying to also track "non-normal" situations which can make the disaster worse. One of the most frequent out-of-the-ordinary situations to occur is that of temporarily disabled employees (usually temporarily on crutches) - requiring special assistance to exit the facilities, and perhaps unable to carry key materials with them. Planners need to have a system in place whereby these employees are identified and have someone tasked with ensuring their safety and their ability to carry out their assignments during a disaster.

Another situation occurs when key employees go on maternity, military or other extended absence and are replaced by their backups. This can leave their functions without emergency backups, and can also affect the areas for which they themselves were the emergency backups.

- intuitively assuming how other departments function

All organizations depend on a series of support functions. The most typical of these are: janitorial, mail delivery, check printing, voicemail, and personnel. Because of their familiarity, planners often don't spend sufficient time going through the details of their operations. Some of the resultant oversights we have found include:

- lack of a procedure to track locations and proper protection of hazardous materials used by janitors and exterminators, which could, in a flood or fire, be spread throughout the facility,
- a mail room having no telephone numbers off-site to enable notification of couriers and
overnight delivery services where to deliver when the facility is not in operation,
- personnel files stored non-fireproof file cabinets,
- an accounting department with a customized check-printer, using blank check stock - requiring over a week to replace the printer,
- lack of an ability to access employees' voicemail if they are incapacitated.

- forgetting "unforgettable" events

Almost all organizations we've worked with have had major disasters which have entered into their institutional lore. However, typically they fail to document the details of what went wrong, what went right, what they've learned, what they need to change for the future, and a tracking of follow-up on the recommended changes. Planners need to maintain a separate logbook documenting these events, and tracking the implementation of the recommendations.

- ignoring "external" factors

Many organizations don't take proper cognizance of the fact that they are located nearby to or within areas which can be a focus of demonstrations or targets of violence. An example we encountered after September 11, 2001, was a non-military organization with a second office and backup records-storage site within that office, located on an Air Force Base, hundreds of miles away from the terrorist attacks. As a result of the attacks, the base was closed to non-military personnel and the organization was unable to operate or gain access to that facility for an extended period of time.

Beyond simply looking around their own buildings, planners need to be involved in and incorporate thinking from outside region-wide disaster-planning organizations in order to acquire this wider perspective.

- not keeping “outside” emergency organizations up-to-date

Particularly in this age of governmental consolidation and reorganizations, many departments have taken on new responsibilities covering new locations. We have often found that the local fire and police departments covering these locations often do not have up-to-date contact information in the event of an emergency in the local facility. For more complicated facilities, we have almost never found that a set of building plans has been filed with the local fire department. Planners need to obtain a confirmation from each local site as part of their periodic disaster-plan review, that all permissible and relevant information has been communicated to the local authorities.

====================

Steven Lewis, Ph.D. is the president of The Systems Audit Group, Inc, in Newton, MA. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) with a PhD in Systems from the Univ. of Pennsylvania, and a Masters and Bachelors in Engineering from Cornell University.
During the last fifteen years, he has developed over 120 comprehensive disaster recovery/business continuity plans for networked based organizations. Many of these also included "Year/2000" risk analyses, evaluation and testing.

Dr. Lewis has also authored numerous articles, including “Plan for a Disaster Without Destroying Your Budget,” which appeared in PUBLIC RISK magazine, and “Disaster Recovery Planning: A HIPAA Requirement,” which appeared in HEALTH FACILITIES MANAGEMENT magazine.

How I improved my MPG by 30% . . . Bill Rogers

A few months back, I caught part of a radio interview with a Wayne Gerdes. It dealt with the subject of “hypermiling,” a term I never heard before. What really caught my attention is when Mr. Gerdes said the best mileage he ever got was 180 miles to the gallon. WOW. It was with a hybrid and under ideal conditions, but 180 MPG is unreal. He also said he drove from Chicago to New York City on one tank of gas, plus many other achievements.

I jotted down his website at http://www.cleanmpg.com/ and started doing some homework. I won’t repeat here what is on his site, but it's worth your time to surf around there to learn some of his tips. Here’s what I did during July 2008 to help improve my MPG. Would you believe I increased my mileage by 30%? Repeat – 30%. I went from 19.6 MPG to 25.8.

1. Tire Pressure – I checked my tires for the first time in wayyyy tooooo long and discovered all four were under the recommended pressure. So I inflated them to the manufacturers recommended level.

2. Coasting – I was amazed at how easy this is to do. I now discover that I am coasting blocks at a time in city and county travel and miles at a time on the highway and back roads. I just returned from a trip where I drove about 180 miles. I estimated that I coasted over 10 miles during the trip using virtually zero gasoline. The vast majority of experts say to not shift your car into neutral as there is virtually no gas savings. There is also a big question if this could cause damage to your transmission. Just coast by not touching your gas pedal.

3. Keep Moving – If you are sitting in your car waiting for the light to change, you are burning gas and getting zero miles to the gallon. Once you start moving, your MPG increases. So it’s only logical to keep moving and avoid stopping and waiting for lights to change. Mr. Gerdes pointed out on his radio interview to quit looking at the next stop light but to start looking blocks past it for the second and third stop lights.

Adjust your driving so you roll through all the lights as they change and avoid stopping and burning up gas. Right now, I estimate I am driving through 60%-70% of the stop lights in my travels. My goal is to increase this to 70%-80%.

4. Going Down Hill – When you’re going downhill, take your foot off the gas pedal and coast. I was surprised how often I kept my foot on the pedal and continued giving the car gas when I really didn’t have to.

Here’s what happened to me. Before I adjusted my tire pressure, I filled my tank and jotted down the mileage. This was tank #1. When I filled it the second time, I calculated the miles per gallon on the first tank and discovered I got 19.6 MPG. I drive a 2001 Nisson Maxima. I was a bit disappointed as I thought I was getting over 20 MPG. Of course the last time I checked my mileage was about 6 years ago and about the last time I checked my tire pressure.

When I filled my tank for the #2 test, I filled my tires to the recommended air pressure level. My second MPG test was on. I started coasting as much as possible and started paying better attention to the stop lights. When I completed this tank of gas, I checked my mileage again and discovered I got 23.5 MPG on this tank, an increase of almost 20%. WOW.

Now I was ready for my third tank of gas and test #3. While the previous ones were mostly city driving, this tank was for highway driving. I had a trip out of town and drove about 180 miles with most all of this on an interstate highway or local county roads. I estimated I may have coasted more than 10 miles during this trip. About half was on the Interstate and half on county roads. I checked my mileage, filled the tank and calculated my miles per gallon. I was pleasantly surprised to see I averaged 25.8 MPG – which is an increase of over 30% from the MPG when I started this project.

OK guys and gals in credit union world, why don’t you give this a try. Do some homework and visit Mr. Gerdes website at http://www.cleanmpg.com/. Write up a short article on your experience and send it to us to share with our readers. Thanks

You won't have any idea how good you can do . . . unless you try.

July 2008 News & Views Below

CU SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY News - Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security and technology issues for credit unions - Plus some interesting and fun web sites.
(Click on photos to enlarge)

CUs in several states warn of automated phone scams

Credit unions in at least six states across the U.S. have issued warnings in the past week about ongoing automated telephone phishing scams that attempt to collect personal information for possible identity theft.

The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA) reported that the Philadelphia area was targeted with an automated telephone message that states it was sent by a credit union's Fraud and Security Department and that the recipient's credit card account has been suspended.
The message continues leaving instructions to dial variations of the exchange beginning as 515-414-xxx with the last four numbers constantly changing, PCUA said. Once the number is reached, an automated voice asks for the recipient's card number and PIN (Life is a Highway July 24).

The calls have been received by members and nonmembers. Recipients who disclosed their information reported immediate fraudulent transaction activity in Spain and Romania, with significant monetary losses.

For more details, visit: http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/08/system072408-8.html?ref=hed

Survey: consumers give thumbs up to biometrics

Ever wonder how interested U.S. consumers are in adding fingerprint biometrics to their cell phones? Well, a survey sponsored by fingerprint sensor provider AuthenTec shows 71 percent would pay more for this feature in their mobile phones.

Other findings include: * Overall, 32 percent would be willing to spend more than $25 to have the feature added to their cell phones, while nearly half (45 percent) of young adults (18-24) indicated they are willing to pay more than $25.

ATM security camera photo in robbery prompts lawsuit

A lawsuit filed Friday against an Orlando-based credit union has prompted the credit union to require more specific information from police when they request access to its security camera surveillance videotapes.

Larry Tobin, president/CEO of Fairwinds FCU, said he has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit filed Friday by a member, Joyce Treutel, whose suit claims an invasion of privacy.

The credit union gave police separate photos of Treutel and a man using an ATM at a branch. The police gave local media the photos and incorrectly linked them as "persons of interest" in an investigation of an ATM card theft. The photo and incorrect information were broadcast on local news.

Treutel and the man were interrogated by the police but they had nothing to do with the theft.
"Police requested an ATM film for a specific period of time, but they gave us no other information," Tobin told News Now. "We provided it, and the police, based on that tape, posted two photos on the news and said that they were 'people of interest.'"

However, "the clock on the ATM was out of sync, and they were not the right people at the right time," he said. "Had the police given us more information, we could have pinpointed the correct people at the ATM," he said.

Finding the correct people in such a time frame is challenging, he said, adding that "three or four people can use an ATM within a one-minute period."

As a result of the error, "we are requiring police to provide details about what they are looking for" in addition to the time frame. The credit union likely could request a court order and is exploring its legal options, but "we'd certainly want to cooperate with authorities needing the information," he said.

The second person photographed did not sue, but claimed damages, which the credit union settled.

..

Online Banking: Still Not There

With all the hype around mobile banking’s progress and promise, it’s easy to forget that good ol’, PC-based online banking still has its own usage barriers.

Outside of Gen X users, according to a new Forrester Research report, many bank customers enrolled in online banking still aren’t using the Web to perform billpays, transfer funds or even check their balances. Forrester’s benchmark study of consumer technology use found that while 60 percent of users age 29-42 have gone online to check account balances, less than 50 percent of Baby Boomers and 40 percent of senior citizens have done so. And those spunky Gen Y’ers born with a mouse in hand go to Web sites less often for banking and billpay than the 43-and-up boomers, says Forrester.

If you exclude Gen X’ers, “online banking is still nascent,” states the report. “Community banks serve fewer than half their online customers online, and only 23 percent of consumers pay their bills at a bank’s Web site—despite 10 years of trying.”

Is Your Credit Union Haunted?

This site was created to help answer the numerous questions regarding local hauntings and ghosts. It is a state by state, country by country listing of haunted places. If you know of a haunted place that is not listed, please read the info on how to add a place and submit it. We can't guarantee that all of the places listed are haunted. We are sure that some of these are just local legends and folklore, but often these legends do spring out of past events. They are many places that the legend concerning it may be wrong, but the place still may be haunted.
http://theshadowlands.net/places/

..

ATM Industry Group: Don’t Blame Us

How can you tell when concern about ATM fraud has reached a tipping point, or a level of absurdity that defies logic and shuns accountability?

Maybe when a trade association for the ATM industry reassures the public that it’s point-of-sale terminals, not ATMs, that they should be worried about. Earlier this month, a federal court case against three alleged hackers in New York included the bombshell news they had apparently breached Citibank’s ATMs inside 7-Eleven convenience stores and made off with millions of dollars and thousands of unencrypted consumer PIN numbers. Reports centered the blame on two ATM operators, Cardtronic and Fiserv, and raised alarms about how many other ATMs have readily available numbers inside.So how did the global ATM Industry Association respond?

By boasting of how many ATM transactions DON’T end in fraud, and spreading the good news for cardholders that boosted encryption at ATM terminals—well, at least when it’s applied—has pushed most of the reported debit card fraud onto POS terminals and merchant IT systems.

In a press statement, Lana Harmelink, international director of ATM Industry Association, cited “proactive ATM security”—notably, the implementation of Encrypted PIN Pads (EPP) and Triple DES Encryption (Triple DES)—as a reason that consumers not be worried about ATM fraud. “As a consequence of TDES and EPP, criminals shifted their focus” to stealing PINs and card data from POS and pay-at-the-pump terminals, as well as merchant IT systems. “In these cases, the ATM is simply used as a means to retrieve cash; it is not the point where the cardholder's card number and PIN were stolen or copied, and in no way represents a threat to consumers,” she says.

But such a statement avoids the obvious: ATM fraud is real, and ducking that fact helps no one, including the ATM Industry Association’s members. Is ATM security going to the dogs?

..

During the Robbery

The two most important things to a financial institution are its employees and customers. No one should endanger his life or the lives of others in foolish acts of heroism to save money. The following suggestions will help your employees during the robbery. Go over these techniques in your robbery training program.

During a robbery you should:

Stay calm. (It will be over in a few seconds.)

Do exactly as told by the robber, either by his/her words or actions. (Follow the instructions very carefully, but do not help the robber)

Give exactly the amount demanded - include bait money. (Do not give more, as this may cause the robber to get scared or mad, thinking you are tricking him)

Be polite, courteous and observant. (Remember what he says, does, where he stands and what he touches) Practice this procedure.

Form a good mental picture of the robber. Visually identify him or her. If there is more than one robber, try to concentrate on the one nearest you.

Utilize customer identification techniques. (Concentrate on his speech or mannerisms, etc.)

Presume that the robber has a weapon, and that it is real.

Retain evidence, such as a note.

Activate the alarm and camera when it is safe to do so.

Observe the direction of the escape, description of the get-away car, color of car, make of car, license number or plate.

CUs should market to Gen X, Y through e-mail

Credit unions looking to market to members of Generations X and Y may want to reference a recent study indicating that e-mail is one of the most effective ways to reach them.

Aite Group surveyed a group of 500 consumers to see in which channels--e-mail, online, at the ATM, or on their cell phones--they would most like to receive marketing offers.

While nearly six in 10 consumers said they are open to receiving offers from at least one of four common marketing channels, four in 10 said they would like to receive special offers and coupons through e-mail, Aite said.

Gen X demonstrated the strongest interest--53%--in e-mail marketing, followed by Gen Y at 47%.

Baby boomers are less interested, and senior citizens demonstrate the least interest in being contacted through e-mail for marketing purposes.

...

FTC Reminds CUs of Identity Theft Protection Compliance

Credit unions and other financial institutions have until Nov. 1 to develop and implement identity theft prevention programs, the Federal Trade Commission reminded them this week.

Such programs, which were mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, must provide for the identification, detection and response to patterns, or specific activities that could indicate identity theft. These patterns and activities are known as “red flags.’’

These fall into five categories: alerts, notifications or warnings from a consumer reporting agency; suspicious documents; suspicious personally identifying information, such as a suspicious address; unusual use of or suspicious activity relating to an account; and notices from customers, identity theft victims, law enforcement authorities or other businesses about possible identity theft in connection with covered accounts.

Red Flags Rules apply to all financial institutions and creditors with covered accounts.

Hundreds of Thousands of Laptops Lost at U.S. Airports Annually

This is a weird statistic:

Some of the largest and medium-sized U.S. airports report close to 637,000 laptops lost each year, according to the Ponemon Institute survey released Monday. Laptops are most commonly lost at security checkpoints, according to the survey.

Close to 10,278 laptops are reported lost every week at 36 of the largest U.S. airports, and 65 percent of those laptops are not reclaimed, the survey said. Around 2,000 laptops are recorded lost at the medium-sized airports, and 69 percent are not reclaimed.

Travelers seem to lack confidence that they will recover lost laptops. About 77 percent of people surveyed said they had no hope of recovering a lost laptop at the airport, with 16 percent saying they wouldn't do anything if they lost their laptop during business travel. About 53 percent said that laptops contain confidential company information, with 65 percent taking no steps to protect the information.

I don't know how to generalize that to a total number of lost laptops in the U.S.; let's call it 750,000. At $1,000 per laptop -- a very conservative estimate -- that's $750 million in lost laptops annually. Most are lost at security checkpoints, and I'm sure the numbers went up considerably since those checkpoints got more annoying after 9/11.

Good Essay on TSA Stupidity

A real-life experience -

"You ain't takin' this through," she says. "No knives. You can't bring a knife through here."

It takes a moment for me to realize that she's serious. "I'm ... but ... it's ..."

"Sorry." She throws it into a bin and starts to walk away.

"Wait a minute," I say. "That's airline silverware."

"Don't matter what it is. You can't bring knives through here."

"Ma'am, that's an airline knife. It's the knife they give you on the plane."

Visit Georg Carlin on Airport Security (Caution: Language may be offensive)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBxzvSbGJ2w

Five off-work activities that could get you fired

Most of the states in the U.S. exercise at-will employment rules. That is, a company can fire an employee for any reason, unless the issue at hand is protected by law, like gender, race, religion, national origin, or disability. (Currently, Montana and Arizona seem to be the only states not practicing at-will.)

This means that it could be legal for your employer to fire you over your political leanings. And that’s not the only area. In a piece for Yahoo! HotJobs, Larry Buhl writes about five key areas where a company may scrutinize. According to Buhl, they are:

~ Smoking, drinking, and overeating. Due to the cost of health insurance, more and more employers view “unhealthy” habits as a threat to their bottom line.

~ Risky behavior. Likewise, a company might see your bungee jumping hobby as a liability.
Speech. Will your employer consider your blogging to be destructive griping?

~ Romantic relationships. Dating someone at a competitor’s company has landed employees in hot water. And some employers might take issue with unmarried coupling or even same-sex relationships (federal law doesn’t protect employees from discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation).

~ Political activity. Volunteering for Obama could be trouble if you have a pro-McCain boss, and vice versa.

Union members and employees in the public (government) sector are generally more protected, but private sector employees — the majority of the U.S. workforce — can be fired at any time.

Buhl provides tips from legal experts for protecting your job from unexpected dangers:

~ Understand the concept of at-will employment. Don’t assume that termination must be illegal just because you think it was unfair.

~ Be fully aware of your company’s policies and terms of employment. Read the employee handbook, and ask HR if you have any questions.

~ Be familiar with the company’s internal dispute mechanisms (if any) for filing grievances.

~ Think before you act. Could your employer see your actions off the job as potentially destructive to the company?

~ Don’t disclose. “You don’t have to disclose lifestyle choices or off-the-clock activities unless there is a clear link to your ability to perform the job,” Paul Secunda said.

Discarding electronics may be hazardous to your ID

If you carelessly dispose of your personal digital assistant (PDA), cell phone, or computer, you could be handing over personal information to the new "owners" of your discarded or recycled equipment, according to one of the guests on Sunday's H&FF Radio show.

Home & Family Finance airs Sundays at 3 p.m. EDT on the Radio America Network. The one-hour program devoted to consumer finance issues is brought to you by America's credit unions and their 90 million members, and is presented by CO-OP Network.

The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and Radio America are podcasting Home & Family Finance through iTunes, Podcast Alley, Odeo, and other popular podcast library sites, as well as on Radio America and CUNA's websites.

Hidden Costs Behind Tomorrow’s Teller

As branch teller jobs morph into wider sales and service roles, banks will first have to make major technology upgrades, such as building out teller-image capture capabilities and workstation tools to both support and measure sales performance, according to a new report from TowerGroup. With back-office image capture now commonplace, bankers will find they need to “take another step” in cost savings and efficiency goals—as well as fraud reduction—by moving capture out front to the teller window, where transactions can immediately flow into the teller platform and yield bottom-line benefits like the reduction of next-day exceptions.

TowerGroup retail banking research director Tom Brogan, the report’s author, predicts 375,000 teller image capture devices will be online by 2014, putting the devices in 56 percent of all teller workstations. This automation will free up tellers to pitch products and services and will change the way banks measure teller performance. While a number of mid-size and large banks have teller sales referral tools built into branch systems, TowerGroup notes most still judge their employees on customer satisfaction metrics instead of real sales numbers. Determining which tellers outperform their peers will become more crucial as banks downsize staffs, in a trend that already is clipping away more than 500 positions a year at institutions with more than 1,000 branches.

Transforming the teller position into a sales associate job will take more than pruning heads. Banks will have to invest in more training to support the “universal teller,” as well as enhance teller-technology platforms to work with business-process management and workflow applications.

66 FCU shuts down fraudulent sites, phone numbers

66 FCU, Bartlesville, Okla., has submitted more than 45 websites and 40 phone numbers to be shut down by servers after scammers sent mass e-mails and text messages, and called members of the credit union asking for personal financial information.

Of the credit union's 47,000 members, 20 responded to the scammers through e-mail and phone. A total of $15,000 was withdrawn from members' accounts, and the transactions were traced back to Chile, Romania and Spain, said Chris Berger, 66 FCU director of marketing.

66 has blocked transactions from those countries on members' accounts. If members are traveling to those countries, they can contact the credit union and ask to have the block lifted, Berger said.

The credit union sent e-mails to members about the scams. It also posted examples of fraudulent e-mail on its website--a "small percentage" compared to the total number of e-mails circulating,

Drastic Steps in Cutting Costs

The fuel pressure has become so intense that airlines are taking steps that would have seemed absurd a year ago. US Airways said this week that it would no longer show movies so it can get the weight of movie equipment off its planes, saving $10 million a year in fuel costs. US Airways and United repainted their aircraft from dark blues and grays to white, which weighs less.

No Frills Airline

No frills airlines have been around for awhile. It used to be an option that could save you money. That is, if you were willing to forego some comfort. Now, it seems like all airlines are going no frills. Yuck.

But is flying no frills really all that bad? According to these Videos of the Day, yes.

The videos come from two great sketch comedy shows. The first comes from The Carol Burnett Show. It’s a hilarious look at no frills flying from the 1970s. The second comes from the 2007 season of Mad TV. As airlines scramble to save money, they take it from your pocket.

We could all use a vacation. But after watching these videos, I think I’ll drive.

http://videos.komando.com/2008/07/09/no-frills-airlines/

Check Your Gas Station's Calculations

I just got back from filling up at the gas station. I filled my tank with 22.5 gal. But, the problem was that my tank on my Honda only holds 20.3 gal. I went in to talk to the manager and he said that the pumps were calibrated by the state and that he couldn't do too much. I said 'Whoa, something isn't right here!' He tried to tell me that the bad weather yesterday caused the pumps to pump slow and might be off calibration.

I then told him that was not my problem and that I was being charged for 4 or 5 gal. that I didn't get. He then told the cashier to give me a $10.00 gift card for the possible error. I was about to tell him that I was going to call the TV station and put his A--- on the 6:00 news.

Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount of fuel for your dollar:

Whichever grade of fuel you are using, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount. The dollar amount shoul d be EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, if not, then the pump is rigged.

It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10-gallon price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the proper authorities in your state.

What If Gas Costs $10 a Gallon?

Forget pizza delivery. And cheap airfares. And bottled water. In fact, forget a way of life that looks much like today's. But would that be so bad?

Here are some likely effects:

>> Consumer spending on eating out, clothing, electronics, vacations and other little luxuries would fall sharply. A Nielsen study found that even at recent gas prices, 41% of consumers were eating out less. In total, 18% of those surveyed were cutting spending to a "great degree." That would bruise companies such as Applebee's, Macy's, Gap, Best Buy and others. But discount retailers, particularly those selling food and gas, could do relatively well. Think Costco, Wal-Mart and McDonald's.

>> We'd see "a lot of parked planes," says Bill Swelbar, an air transport engineer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The U.S. airline industry pays out $465 million in fuel costs for every $1 rise in oil. At $350-a-barrel oil, the industry would pay more than $100 billion extra, almost as much as last year's total airfare sales. Even if airlines ratcheted up fares 50%, half of their airplanes would be grounded because they'd be too expensive to fly, Swelbar reckons.

>> Many independent truckers, who pay for their own fuel, would go bankrupt as their costs soared and shippers switched to barges and trains. Taxis and FedEx would be strictly for the well-heeled. And home pizza deliveries would cease. Pizza delivery drivers also pay for their own gas. "It'd be brutal," says Joseph Miller, an assistant manager at a Domino's Pizza in Seattle. "I would think we wouldn't have any drivers."

>> Food prices could jump by a third or more, experts estimate. About 80 cents of the $4.50 retail cost of a box of cornflakes goes to transport it, says Dan Basse, the president of AgResource, a Chicago research company. On top of that, there's the cost of fertilizers to grow the corn and diesel for farm equipment. In 2005, transportation and energy made up 8.5% of all retail food costs, but energy was far cheaper then. As $10 gas pushed up food prices, pinched consumers would give up pricey fresh meat and vegetables for cheap pastas and oils. Ranchers and dairies with energy-hungry milking barns would struggle. And cities might sprout to life as people planted vegetable gardens on their roofs and balconies and in vacant lots.

>> Plastics for appliances, packaging, pacemakers and myriad other products would jump in price as the natural gas that plastic is made with rose in value alongside oil. Bill Wood, the president of Mountaintop Economics and Research in Massachusetts, says shoppers would have a choice: "Paper or paper?" Small plastic bottles of water would disappear. Glass and metal containers would make a comeback. And recycling would explode. Families might even have nine bins in the hall to separate their trash, as they do in Japan, where consumer recycling tops 90%.

>> As drivers began to switch to 100-mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid cars (already expected to launch by 2010), the electricity grid could come under strain. Theoretically, if everyone had one and plugged it in at night, the grid could handle 84% of the nation's car fleet. But to avoid the risk of city brownouts, the grid capacity would have to rise. Solar, wave and wind power would ramp up. Giant solar thermal power plants, which use mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy, would be built. But in the rush to get power, we'd probably also step up the use of cheap, dirty coal (50% of our electricity generation now). Even nuclear power (21%) could be considered anew.

>> Resistance to drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off California would shrink. Environmentalists might stand their ground. But as James Williams, an energy economist for WTRG Economics in Arkansas, says, "Let's put it this way: Y'all wanna drive?" Oil reserves in both areas are thought to be more than 10 billion barrels, double the proven reserves in Texas. That would help feed America's 21-million-barrel-a-day appetite.

Identity thieves steal PIN numbers from convenience store ATMs

Hackers broke into Citibank's network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers' PIN codes, according to recent court filings that revealed a disturbing security hole in the most sensitive part of a banking record.

The scam netted the alleged identity thieves millions of dollars. But more importantly for consumers, it indicates criminals were able to access PINs - the numeric passwords that theoretically are among the most closely guarded elements of banking transactions - by attacking the back-end computers responsible for approving the cash withdrawals.

More at: http://www.securityinfowatch.com/online/Financial/Citibank-ATMs-hacked-by-thieves/16404SIW339
or http://tinyurl.com/6kwcaz

Third-generation Prius may have optional solar powered air conditioning

For you car buffs . . .

Toyota Motor Corp plans to install solar panels on its next-generation Prius hybrid cars, becoming the first major automaker to use solar power for a vehicle, the Nikkei business daily reported on earlier this month.

The paper said Toyota would equip solar panels on the roof of the high-end version of the Prius when it redesigns the gasoline-electric hybrid car early next year, and the power generated by the system would be used for the air conditioning. You can read lots more information at: http://www.cleanmpg.com/

Stop Talking to Machines and Talk to a Real Human

Tired of dialing 1-800 numbers and not being able to get through to a human who can help you?
BRINGO cuts through all of that so you don't have to. That's right, BRINGO has conquered phone trees.

Here's how it works:

Find the company you'd like to call by category (credit cards, mortgages, loans, health care)

Enter your phone # (we will never disclose your phone number to anyone, not even your mother!).

Wait a few seconds while we navigate the phone tree.

When we call you back, pick up your phone and you're done. No more phone trees.

http://www.nophonetrees.com/

Run Your Car on Water

It's a little off topic, but I wanted to make people aware of this apparently recent development.In the past 6 months people have been converting their cars, trucks and other motorized equipment to run by the power of water! Thats right you diddnt read that wrong, I did say run on water.

Basically you create a hydrogen generator which isnt too difficult, hook it up to the car in the correct manor and almost instantly double your miles per gallon.

Here is a video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFGhZNxdyDY.

So he gets 60MPG in a ford station wagon, thats very good, but with more efficient generators you could improve further. All the information regarding building, installing and running your new water powered car can be found on a ebook here: Water4Gas.com. The e-book costs a few dollars but is well worth it in the long run, converting to run on water is the future, why wait?

Convert now, learn how to do so at Water4Gas.com

A Number Worth Putting In Your Cell Phone

Google's new 411 information service is free, fast and easy to use. Give it a try now and see how simple it is to find and connect with local businesses for free.

Dial from any phone(1-800-466-4411) or 1-800-GOOG411.

Why pay your cell phone provider for information service$ when Google provides it free.

ATTORNEY'S ADVICE -- NO CHARGE

Finally, someone has forwarded an email to me that is worth its weight in gold. All of this makes perfect logical sense.

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED'.

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit car d accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O. Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Ne ver have your SS# printed on your checks (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travel either here or abroad.

We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards. Unfortunately I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.

But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)

3. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done.. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend someone turned it in. It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., has been stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

3.) Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289 4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

Amazing Air Car

The Compressed Air Car developed by Motor Development International (MDI) Founder Guy Negre might be the best thing to have happened to the motor engine in years.

The $12,700 CityCAT, one of the planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor uni ts. MDI says it should cost only around $2 to fill the car up with 340 liters of air!

The Air Car will be starting production relatively soon, thanks to India 's TATA Motors. Forget corn! There's fuel, there's renewable fuel, and then there's user-renewable fuel! What can be better than air?

Click here for photos and more information:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/compressed-air-car.shtml

This five-seater car runs on compressed air, has zero pollution, very low running costs and will cost just over $5,000.
http://www.flixxy.com/zero-pollution-automobile.htm

How to squeeze $500 out of your monthly budget

This post comes from partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com.

When large corporations face tough times, they often hire "efficiency experts" who come in and tell them how to save money. Households, struggling under the strain of higher gasoline prices, could use the same kind of service right about now.

Playing the role of an efficiency expert, Consumer Reports magazine says it has looked for and found ways for the average consumer household to trim up to $500 a month from its budget. Even at $4 a gallon, that buys a lot of gas. Read More...
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/?fpn=how%20to%20squeeze%20500%20out%20of%20your%20monthly%20budget

June 2008 News & Views Below

CU InfoSECURITY News Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security issues for credit unions - Plus some interesting and fun web sites.

(Click on photos to enlarge)