taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Watching television last night, I couldn’t fail to take notice of this new IBM ad:

‘For the first time in history, more people live in cities than anywhere else, which means cities have to get smarter.’ [...] ‘Paris has smart healthcare; smart traffic systems in Brisbane keep traffic moving; Galway has smart water’.

Jaw-dropping. That would be this Galway?

• April 2007: Irish city crippled by water emergency:

A major water crisis has left scores of people ill and tens of thousands at risk from contamination in a west of Ireland city. Galway’s water supply has been hit by an outbreak of the parasite cryptosporidium, with up to 170 people now confirmed to have been affected by a serious stomach bug as a result. Tests found that the city’s water supply contained nearly 60 times the safe limit of cryptosporidium pollution. Residents have already been unable to drink or use water for food preparation for weeks.

• Apr 2008: new cryptosporidium outbreak in Galway:

Residents in parts of Co. Galway have been hit by a new outbreak of the cryptosporidium parasite.Tests on the Roundstone Public Water Scheme showed trace elements of the parasite, as did water schemes for Inishnee and Errisbeg.

• Sep 2008: Residents told not to drink tap water:

Council engineers in Galway have begun work on providing safe drinking water for up to 1,000 householders [...] where supplies have been contaminated by lead. The residents have been advised not to drink tap water until further notice.

Apparently the IBM ad is referring to something to do with tides and aquaculture in Galway Bay, rather than the worst sequence of water-quality disasters in Ireland for several decades. But really — someone at IBM’s marketing department should have done a little more research first before using that line…

Tags: ads, advertising, commercials, doh, fail, galway, ibm, smart-cities, water, water-quality

This is a little late, since I was off on holliers when it came to light — Galway News reports ‘hundreds hit by skimming scam’:

The account details of shoppers who used credit or laser cards to pay for their groceries and other items in a number of Galway shops and supermarkets were illegally skimmed by a gang who apparently managed to interfere with the Chip & PIN terminals at the stores’ check-out counters.

The Irish Times story:

However, it has emerged some cardholders had several thousand euro taken from their accounts overseas before they realised what was happening and alerted their card provider. And it is feared that thousands of other customers do not yet realise their cards have been cloned. Garda sources have confirmed the case involves thousands of cards.

The Galway investigation is centred on one large shop in the county. Gardaí believe several thousand cards have had all of their details skimmed, including pin numbers, over the past month. Some of the cards have already been cloned and used in Canada and other countries where, unlike Ireland, chip and pin protective technology is not in use.

In the Galway case [...] Detectives are working on the theory that somebody in the Galway shop may have facilitated the card skimming for an Eastern European crime syndicate.

Gardaí do not believe the payment terminals were tampered with. Gardaí have recovered CCTV images of suspects from in-store cameras.

In the past, cards have been copied using very small hand held devices through which a card is quickly and discreetly skimmed at the point of payment. The information is then copied, or cloned, onto a blank card which is then used like a regular payment card.

Skimming devices around the size of a cigarette lighter can store details from thousands of cards.

The payment terminals from the Galway shop have been taken by gardaí for technical examination as a precaution. The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation is leading the inquiry.

This Boards.IE thread is a real eye-opener, containing lots of reports from victims of this scam — many reports saying that they suspect it was in Joyces’ Supermarket in Knocknacarra, although one poster reckons ‘there are now over 20 suspect premises in Galway City and outskirts’. blimey.

On a related note — while shopping in my local supermarket at the weekend, I was pleased to note that when I paid with my credit card, I was asked to sign the slip, instead of using Chip-and-PIN. So it looks like at least one retailer is taking additional care.

On the other hand, the thread also notes many cases of skimming which took place from in-store ATMs in small convenience stores — those are very widespread now. eek. :(

Tags: atm, chip-and-pin, credit-cards, fraud, galway, ireland, pos, scams, skimming

Last Friday, I visited the Galway Film Fleadh to see the Irish premiere of a new feature-length movie called Small Engine Repair, which was directed by a mate of mine called Niall Heery.

I loved it — funny, extremely black comedy, reminded me a lot of The Deer Hunter in visual style, but unmistakably Irish at the same time. (Blog movie reviews seem to be out of favour right now, so I’ll leave it at that.)

Here’s hoping it picks up wider distribution very soon — it deserves to be big, I think. Nice one, Niall! Happily, the voters of the Fleadh agreed – it went on to win the Best First Feature award.

Actually, it’s been a good year for friends and family at the Fleadh — I note that my cousin, Eoin Ryan, picked up first prize for Best Irish Short Animation with his excellent short, Demon. cool!

Tags: awards, demon, eoin-ryan, family, films, fleadh, friends, galway, movies, niall-heery, small-engine-repair