41–50 of 70 posts
The fact that Mondo does not yet currently have a banking license in the UK is a big risk. If you're thinking of investing consider the value of that investment should the licence application fail.
As usual with these things: What about app/server security. Simple token verification is prone to abuse (malware) and spoofing is becoming a bigger issue on mobile only platforms than ever before. Server abuse is difficult, but not impossible and since getting a banking licence usually does not verify any security measures, I'm wondering what they already did (or didn't) do. (I'm well aware of the state-of-the-art, a…
[I work at Mondo] You raise a good point, indeed. Security is something we take very seriously. As others have stated already on this thread, groups that target banks are incredibly sophisticated and well capitalised. All other banks face the same issues, of course, but unlike them we can't afford to simply write off losses to cybercrime. We see Mondo as an opportunity to build a great security culture from the groun…
Most of the pentesters/vuln researchers I know aren't huge fans of writing ISO2700x style policies documents (actually thinking about it there aren't many people who are fans of that kind of thing!)
if you're looking for non-traditional advertising routes for this you might want to post on /r/netsec's hiring thread https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/3zfj6v/rnetsecs_q1_...
There was a similar offering in the US called https://www.simple.com/ . Looking at their blog it seems that they launched back in 2010? I wonder how they're getting on? Anybody got any metrics?
Hmm, what's the difference between this and Simple? Other than that it is available in UK?
With Mondo, they are looking to actually become a bank.
So on a usability level, you may not actually see much difference, but on another, it would seem like Mondo are fundamentally different as they will have a level of flexibility to decide which banking services to provide to customers. Although that's not so say that Simple couldn't use third party services, they may not have the same level of independence which Mondo wants/will have.
Does Mondo allow the user to keep track how their money is being invested? With current technology that shouldn't be an issue.
Why do you ask this? I'm keen to hear what you'd like to see from us :)
During our current alpha test we don't invest your money at all. It's just kept in cash with our partner bank Wirecard.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
[I work at Mondo] You raise a good point, indeed. Security is something we take very seriously. As others have stated already on this thread, groups that target banks are incredibly sophisticated and well capitalised. All other banks face the same issues, of course, but unlike them we can't afford to simply write off losses to cybercrime. We see Mondo as an opportunity to build a great security culture from the groun…
FWIW, I saw that ad. Looks very interesting, but I think you may have a challenge getting someone who is a Vuln researcher/pen tester type (who most commonly have CVEs, PoCs to their name) who also has a decent knowledge of banking security, policies etc and also is looking to graduate out of technical work into team management... Most of the pentesters/vuln researchers I know aren't huge fans of writing ISO2700x sty…
I'd rather hire a CISO that understands security and teach them how to think like a regulator than vice versa! Heck, I have long hair myself and didn't have any contact with policy documents until just over a year ago. And both our CTO and CEO like to write code.
Basically, we're looking for our Alex Stamos. Any more ideas you have how we might find somebody like that and avoid the stigma of the "Bank CISO" job would be much appreciated.
Separate to the risks of investing, what are the risks of actually using Mondo as a bank? I really like the idea but can't shake the worry of a huge financial loss is it actually possible?
I work at Mondo. We will be a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and all customer deposits will be insured up to £75k per person. During our current alpha test (and before we have a banking license), your funds are actually held by our partner bank Wirecard. Edit: The internet beat me to it. My work here is done :)
what if your system messes up and a load of my payments suddenly disappear? or your IT staff didn't completely understand how, say Cassandra treats transactions?
I like my paper bank statements...
Disclaimer: I'm seriously considering investing in this. There was a very good talk about their back end infrastructure at NDC London that makes me confident in their tech chops. Some of the value add concepts on their website look really useful for attracting customers. Crucially I'm aware of just how much legacy cruft is holding back more established retail banks. In the same way that things like newer airlines can…
they are springing up overnight, there's already 5 or so in the same exact category (Atom, Starling come directly to mind).
the first few are taking on all the risk, once it's seen that the FCA will approve a project like this then you'll get a load more springing up overnight
Very interesting. As far as Mondo goes, it's great so far - am on the alpha program and have been using it for almost a month now and very impressed by it. Using it abroad was the main selling point, as that's always a mess otherwise. Basically how banking should be in a modern day and age, even though it's only with a prepaid debit card at the moment.
Can you or anyone else using the alpha give a bit more detail about what you love about it? How is the app compared to say Barclays or some other mainstream bank? Is everything via the app rather than the website? They have an API I think which is pretty cool for a bank, and I'm seriously interested. Disappointed to hear they won't be doing business accounts too, but I guess they want to stay focussed for now.
I don't use it for all my transactions but the reporting of balance/spending history is a really nice feature, as well as the instant notifications.