When French president Nicolas Sarkozy had his bank account hacked it seemed to serve as a metaphor for the crisis in the global system. In fact the incidents were spotted before the crisis, in September, and reports claim Mr Sarkozy only suffered small losses from the account used for his £195,000-a-year salary.

Events have been occurring at a somewhat rapid pace just recently.

Judging by some of the feedback comments that SC has been getting on its revamped website recently, the subject of data leakage is still very much alive.

A quick scan of the newspapers from the past six months would show that, when it comes to predicting economic gloom, some commentators have never had it so good. A few must be on speed dial for journalists looking for a suitably apocalyptic quote for the latest story on the economy/house prices/unemployment/oil prices. And with the weight of some large banks behind them, many people take their comments at face value.

The editorial space has shrunk this month to allow some space to promote our new-look website. We have given the site a makeover and a new back end, which will enable us to react more quickly to visitor demands and behaviour.

The Government is in so much trouble at the moment that adding another failure to an already long list might seem pointless. But the Home Office's second annual report on the activities of SOCA, the much trumpeted national crime agency set up by the Blair administration, justifies the fears of many that it would ignore high-tech offences and focus on organised crime.

It's nice to be proved right

Writing in the Financial Times last month, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, said that "risk management can never reach perfection. It will eventually fail and a disturbing reality will be laid bare, prompting an unexpected and sharp discontinuous response."

There is a debate emerging in information-security circles that may become pivotal in the months ahead: is there value in training employees to become security-aware and, if so, can you maintain that state of awareness?

Is it acceptable to use software vulnerability for commercial gain?