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Sweden, Norway rethink plans for cashless societies over fears that fully digital payment systems would leave them vulnerable to Russian security threats (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 weeks ago by 0x815@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

156 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/4262252

A combination of good high-speed internet coverage, high digital literacy rates, large rural populations and fast-growing fintech industries had put the Nordic neighbours on a fast track to a future without cash.

[...]

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and a subsequent rise in cross-border hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks blamed on pro-Russia groups have prompted a rethink.

[...]

The Swedish government has since completely overhauled its defence and preparedness strategy, joining Nato, starting a new form of national service and reactivating its psychological defence agency to combat disinformation from Russia and other adversaries. Norway has tightened controls on its previously porous border with Russia.

[...]

[Norway's] justice and public security ministry said it “recommends everyone keep some cash on hand due to the vulnerabilities of digital payment solutions to cyber-attacks”. It said the government took preparedness seriously “given the increasing global instability with war, digital threats, and climate change. As a result, they’ve ensured that the right to pay with cash is strengthened”.

[...]

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[–] simon@slrpnk.net 28 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

The risk of the payment system getting shut down and people being unable to make payments for a while is real. And it is one good reason to be less reliant on digital payments.

But there is also the risk of bad actors, which could also be e.g. Russia, getting access to decades of payment history through a hack, if everything is digital. Having that data for every citizen of a country could enable efficient profiling of people in the country using big data analysis technologies.

The kind of thing you could find out with the transaction data is who are working in the military or security police, who is sympathetic to Russia and at the same time vulnerable to work with foreign governments, and potential blackmailing material relating to people in these or other groups. I'm sure the analysts working for the bad actor can come up with even more useful things to look for in the data.

There are of course a lot of other data sources that bad actors are interested in and that are easier to hack, but the financial history seems more comprehensive source of information than most other ones.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The risk of the payment system getting shut down and people being unable to make payments for a while is real. And it is one good reason to be less reliant on digital payments.

Or entities. The USA had a brief oil crisis recently because one of the major pipeline companies had their billing system hacked. Since the company couldn't verify whether someone had paid, they just didn't supply any oil.

Couple that with some misleading news stories and social media panic, and it blew up into a proper shortage from people hoarding all the petrol, and leaving none left.

[–] pinkystew@reddthat.com 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Do you have any more info about this?

[–] T156@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Here's an article about them turning it off because of being unable to verify the bill: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/12/politics/colonial-pipeline-ransomware-payment/index.html

And here's two attributing the issue, at least in part, to panic buying: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/11/petrol-shortages-sweep-us-as-colonial-pipeline-remains-down

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-09/u-s-fuel-sellers-scramble-for-alternatives-to-hacked-pipeline?embedded-checkout=true

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 4 points 3 weeks ago

It already happened in Ukraine during the NotPetya attack by Russia in 2017

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Ukraine_ransomware_attacks

[–] 0x0@programming.dev 4 points 3 weeks ago

Having that data for every citizen of a country could enable efficient profiling of people in the country using big data analysis technologies.

You don't need an external actor for that, a government can very well do that to their citizens...

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The risk of the payment system getting shut down and people being unable to make payments for a while is real. And it is one good reason to be less reliant on digital payments.

Exactly.

Part of the card processing system goes down often enough due to various technical failures that it should just be good business sense to always be capable of accepting cash.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yup, I keep a fair amount of cash on hand at home in case there's some kind of mass outage so I can at least get essentials to last until power is restored. Oh, and I also use it for my kids' allowance and for baby sitters, but I have larger denominations as well in case of emergencies.

That said, I have been considering using cash more often because I really don't like all the tracking that already goes on, and I certainly don't want the government having that data as well. But cash is super inconvenient because of small change, so I haven't made the switch yet. If we could get rid of the small change and just round prices a bit, I would seriously consider going back to cash.

[–] oldfart@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Just a note, high denominations are not great during emergencies, unless you mean big purchase emergencies. Buying food and gas with high denomination bills may end up in seller not accepting the bill because they have no change. Or happily accepting that bill despite having no change.

For small change, you could take the jar to your bank and make a cash deposit (and see the cashier die inside). In some branches they have machines for counting change.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

unless you mean big purchase emergencies

Yup, exactly that. I'm in the US and keep a few hundred in $100 bills, with the rest being smaller denominations. I usually have about $1k in cash in a safe, with lots of small bills. So that should be plenty to handle a couple weeks worth of groceries, or a couple large purchases (e.g. paying someone cash to move a tree or something).

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Couldn't they run a Chaumian digital cash server? It's got top notch privacy, with the only downside of being a trusted central authority... which fiat currencies need anyways.