A conference touting itself as 'exploring the applications of cryptography' for the financial services industry sounds as exciting as damp toast, but the whole issue of computer security is one that the industry is rallying around in an attempt to foster e-commerce transactions.

Recent surveys list security as one of the major issues preventing people from transacting online. Businesses too have held back due to the costs of setting up secure systems, and the costs of failure.

So I expect the Cryptography 2002 conference in Bermuda in March next year will draw a lot of media attention, stirred up in part by the mass of security problems, by those in the industry looking for revenue, and by the real need to improve the integrity of networks and transactions.

The annual conference has been held by the International Financial Cryptography Association since 1997 in Anguilla then switched to the Cayman Islands last year. The switch to Bermuda could mean the conference has found a new and more visible home to highlight the issues.

As of August 31 this year, the cost of virus attacks on information systems around the world reached an estimated US$10.7 billion, up from US$17.1 billion for all of 2000, according to a tally by US research firm Computer Economics.

The basic spend items on the list of any business dependent on computers are on software and services to protect their networks. Two troubling stories, both booboos by Microsoft, highlight the public's lack of trust over this issue.

Last week Microsoft admitted it had known about an Internet Explorer security hole a week before it accused security company Online Solutions of placing users of the browser at risk by publicly disclosing details of the flaw. Microsoft retracted its claim that it only heard of the flaw on the same date, November 8, of Online Solutions' public disclosure.

Microsoft now admits it had been notified by Online Solutions a week earlier and made the defence that it needed two weeks to investigate an alert of that nature.

The vulnerability, labelled as high-risk in versions 5.5 and 6.0 of Internet Explorer, allows malicious code to gain unauthorised access to cookies, the text files used by many sites to keep track of users.

You can now get a patch for the flaw from Microsoft's Internet site. Online Solutions did the right thing.

Microsoft did the wrong thing by keeping quiet about the vulnerability, even if it alerts hackers of a new way into your computer.

The second Microsoft mess up is the discovery earlier this month that the company's Passport system for safeguarding purchases on the Internet has a serious design flaw.

The company acknowledged the flaw when notified by an independent researcher, who found that the flaw might have allowed hackers to steal credit card numbers and personal formation. About two million customers use Passport's e-wallet feature. There has been no evidence of actual theft.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has shut down access to virtual wallets, which was used by about 70 e-commerce Web sites that support the technology, called "Express Purchase. Makes you feel real trusting about the Internet".

Continuing on the theme of notable booboos, here's a good example of the need to keep on top of renewing your Internet domain. Ernst and Young had originally owned the domain name Moneyopolis.org and Moneyopolis.com, at which it provided a financial learning game for school children. The firm then forgot to renew the domains and these were re-registered by quicker companies.

E&Y recovered the '.com' version of the name, but for a while the '.org' version was a sex site. The firm has since recovered the '.org' version, but had to suffer the slings and arrows of the laughing press.

If you think drivers using cell phones while driving is bad, wait until you see them attempting to use their laptops and drive. Just out from Mobile Office Enterprise is "Not To Be Used While Driving" Mobile Office states on its Internet site (www.mobiledesk.com), but here's betting that sooner or later some fool is going to get a bright idea of working while in traffic. Working from your steering wheel looks might uncomfortable.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. You can contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.