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Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

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Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#241

Post by fiveFeet »

westpfelia wrote: post #222
CydeWeys wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't. It's a fixed 30 year mortgage at a 3.375% rate. Refinancing it will increase that by at least a point. Plus, I originally did get the loan through a local credit union, who then sold it to a consolidator who sold it to a big national bank (which happened to be Wells Fargo). Local credit unions generally don't hold onto mortgages. They don't have the economies of scale to service them efficiently.

My 'local' credit union does. They dont sell mortgages/loans to anyone and keep them 100% in house. Its why even after moving to Germany I keep that bank for US assets. They just dont seem as criminally motivated as other banks.

What is the name of this credit union?

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#242

Post by mulmen »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #213
zaphirplane wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is this company that had a grid power issue, batteries kicked in batteries running low, diesel generator show time, diesel generator doesn’t kick in. people scramble to shutdown before the batteries run out. So ITIL stuff happens and time to test it, guess what? diesel again doesn’t kick in (don’t recall the consequences thou)

Please expand ITIL, I don't know what it means.

Then you’re an ITIL expert! Welcome to mid level IT management.

I’m serious.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#243

Post by mulmen »

nostrademons wrote: post #93
mywittyname wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of old companies are like this. They don't invest in critical infrastructure because it would bring them below their 20% margins.

Wells is weird though. When I started banking with them in 2009, they were ahead of the curve in online infrastructure - it was much easier to access them online than any of the banks I was used to back in Massachusetts. They also had a reputation for being both honest and conservative - they were the only AAA-rated bank in 2007, they were #1 in green rankings, and Warren Buffett had invested in them because of their…

I have banked with WF since about 2007 for my student and auto loans. Their online portal has always been worse than whatever my local credit union had.

The WF business is clearly set up to confuse and exploit consumers. My credit union websites have always helped me do what I want and need with my money. This includes the tiny local credit union in Idaho.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#244

Post by mulmen »

thecatspaw wrote: post #230
habosa wrote: post #141

For those who have worked in bank IT, I have some questions. So these days there's very little physical money. Most of my "wealth" is just entries in various digital ledgers. My bank says I have $XXX and my brokerage says I have $YYY and my retirement account says I have $ZZZ. Let's go with the bank account case. Is it possible that a catastrophic accident or attack could wipe my balance down to $0 with no way to rec…

I would assume that banks have some cold backups in a mountain somewhere, like this for example: https://www.mount10.ch/en/mount10/swiss-fort-knox/ Although I'm not sure if it could withstand a nuke, its in a mountain, so, maybe?

Are the backups any good if the infrastructure is vaporized?

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#245

Post by mulmen »

tastroder wrote: post #217
propogandist wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless evil corp was using a blockchain to have an immutable ledger, there's a chance (although extremely small)

If evil corp stores said buzzword stack exclusively on that large rack that's currently on fire because of compliance nothing is gained. Not every problem is a nail.

I don’t follow, are you saying this outage was caused by compliance or that the blockchain can’t help here because of compliance?

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#246

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

deevolution wrote: post #238
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the argument here is that you don't need to keep your Bitcoin in a bank, and instead just horde it all under your digital bed.

It's essentially no different than carrying a credit card in your wallet... The bitcoin network IS the bank, your key is your card. There's no need to horde anything under said "digital bed". It's frightening to see so many ignorant comments.

Except that if you lose your credit card your business doesn't collapse leaving everyone in the lurch.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#247

Post by tastroder »

mulmen wrote: post #245
tastroder wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If evil corp stores said buzzword stack exclusively on that large rack that's currently on fire because of compliance nothing is gained. Not every problem is a nail.

I don’t follow, are you saying this outage was caused by compliance or that the blockchain can’t help here because of compliance?

Neither, I was trying to suggest that offering Blockchain and related technologies as a solution to every problem in existence is kind of an annoying trend. I don't really see the outage discussed here as a technical problem. Quite literally any failover mechanism would have been preferrable here.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#248

Post by msla »

jedberg wrote: post #175

For everyone complaining about "how could they not have failover" let me ask you this: Would you take a job with Wells Fargo to fix their infrastructure? And if you did take such a job, how long do you think it would take you to get the budget and approvals from all the auditors necessary to fix everything? How much would they have to pay you to take that job, knowing how frustrating it would be to get anything done?…

> And if you did take such a job, how long do you think it would take you to get the budget and approvals from all the auditors necessary to fix everything?

The only people who think auditors are bad are the ones trying to pull something an auditor would catch.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#249

Post by powdernine »

habosa wrote: post #141

For those who have worked in bank IT, I have some questions. So these days there's very little physical money. Most of my "wealth" is just entries in various digital ledgers. My bank says I have $XXX and my brokerage says I have $YYY and my retirement account says I have $ZZZ. Let's go with the bank account case. Is it possible that a catastrophic accident or attack could wipe my balance down to $0 with no way to rec…

Not very possible. There are typically extensive business continuity plans with multiple geolocation backups. The auditors should be making sure every financial is doing their diligence in this area. I can tell you that at the credit union I work at we test our disaster recovery plans frequently including remote working, backup office space, alternate data centers and cold storage data backups. We also structure our operations to run live from multiple locations. We might be better than most but in a real disaster most financials would be able to recover financial information with a minimal amount of data loss.

If you are talking about actual nuking then the story might be different. Not all backups can survive an EMP. I expect the biggest problem would be getting people to care about bringing the system back up. I think food and shelter would be of primary concern.

Re: Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline

#250

Post by WhitneyLand »

jedberg wrote: post #175

For everyone complaining about "how could they not have failover" let me ask you this: Would you take a job with Wells Fargo to fix their infrastructure? And if you did take such a job, how long do you think it would take you to get the budget and approvals from all the auditors necessary to fix everything? How much would they have to pay you to take that job, knowing how frustrating it would be to get anything done?…

This gives a good idea of a very real phenomenon that plays a huge but largely hidden role in the failure, success, and form that technology takes at companies.

It's not just infrastructure. Quality, innovation, speed, efficiency, etc. To whatever degree you believe the old 10x programmer meme, believe this: Change that constant 10 to any value for many employees at once at a company and the impact is staggering.

Good people don't think to they are too good for these types of companies. They think the companies are too constraining and place a limit on their ability to realize dreams or their potential to perform.

They don't prefer to work with less passionate peers. Not because such are lesser human beings to be avoided. Rather, it gives them another edge. Constant, motivating, cross-reinforcement during discussion, doesn't just inspire it creates action.

Finally, most of these companies don't have tech as their core business. That correlates very directly to the fact that the most senior and influential people in the company will care less about you, being willing to partner on ideas, etc. It's not personal, Banks think bank stuff is most important and anything else is less important, even if it's a critical operational component of the business.

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