-Victoria Tozer-Pennington-
 
Erupting volcanoes do not often show up in scenario plans for financial services firms but they might do from now on.
An event such as a giant volcanic ash cloud closing the European airspace for almost a week is proof that so-called black swans – or extremely rare loss events – really do happen. The chaos caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano brings home the importance of having business continuity plans in place that prepare for all eventualities.
“The volcanic ash cloud and the effect across Europe is truly …

–By Brian Krebs and Ellen Nakashima–
A widespread and coordinated cyberattack during the past few days has targeted Web sites operated by major government agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security and Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Trade Commission, according to several computer security researchers. The attack involved thousands of computers around the globe infected with rogue software that told them to repeatedly attempt to access the targeted sites, a tactic aimed at driving up traffic beyond the sites’ normal capacity and denying access to legitimate users, according …