POST Payments and identity and lotteries oh my

So here’s a really interesting problem that perhaps new technology might be able to help with. The problem is this: how do you have a fair lottery that allows the winner to remain anonymous?

This is a genuine problem. Look at the lucky chap who just won $160 MILLION DOLLARS in a Jamaican lottery. He turned up to collect his CHEQUE (hardly the best way to keep his identity secret - I really doubt it was made out to “cash”) dressed in a cloak and a “Scream” mask for fear of being identified.

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Websec Canada: Launching replay attacks against the Wells Fargo Wallet service

xxx This white paper is a shortened version of the actual research. Unfortunately, the exploitation bug is not fixed yet. The company was notified and informed about the issue. However, the bug is not fixable (at the moment). From Websec Canada: Launching replay attacks against the Wells Fargo Wallet service . xxx

There is no excuse for not taking cards

So we went to the pub. For lunch. Seven of us. Say £20 per head. £100+ quid. Say £50 quid gross for the pub. Colleague goes to order food and drinks and pay at the bar. Apologetic barmaid comes over to explain that their “card machine” is down, so she can only accept cash. Under normal circumstances I would have simply walked out, feeling it wholly inappropriate to reward such a poorly managed establishment and, as a functioning actor in a capitalist economy, done my duty to depress their lunchtime takings. Here’s what we wanted to say: This is absurd. This is 2016 not 1916. Your card machine is down? Well, so what! Are you seriously telling me that mein host has no mobile phone number capable of registering for PingIt or PayM? That none of the staff or the pub itself have a PayPal account that I can send the money to? That neither the owners nor managers not contingency planners thought to tuck an iZettle behind the bar to use when the clunky and expensive GPRS terminal fails for o...

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