STUDENT REPORT: Compromising The Principles Of Cyber Security Once Tap At A Time

STUDENT REPORT

OMNY: COMPROMISING THE PRINCIPLES OF CYBER SECURITY ONE TAP AT A TIME

By Starasia Wright

MetroCards were initially released in 1993 to replace subway tokens. At the time, MetroCards were considered the most technological enhancement of the transit system. In early 2021, the current payment system: “tap and go” replaced MetroCards. “Tap and go” is also known as contactless payment, which means that they have a chip inside them that emits radio waves. This system is called OMNY: One Metro New York. Riders can tap their debit card, credit card, smartphone, or smartwatch on an electronic (RFID) reader at the turnstile instead of swiping their MetroCard. When I initially heard about OMNY, I was intrigued, yet, alarmed. As a native New Yorker and frequent commuter, I have witnessed the uprising of the war on fare evasion. The war on fare evasion increased video surveillance and police presence in train stations like my hub, Jamaica Center, and other high-poverty neighborhoods that are predominately Black and Latinx in an attempt to prohibit and discourage riders from not paying their fare.

Is OMNY, combined with increased surveillance and police presence, reinforcement to criminalize poverty and perpetuate racial and ethnic bias? Is OMNY another tracking device that helps advertisers make data collection more convenient? While contactless payments are marketed as convenient, OMNY pay raises privacy concerns; it collects location and payment data, thereby contributing to digital profiling’s pervasiveness and perpetuating racial and ethnic bias. OMNY compromises the principles of cyber security one tap at a time.

One of the reasons OMNY raises privacy concerns is the lack of opacity in its data

See OMNY Security Issues Pg 56

Starasia Wright is a multi-disciplinary, recent undergraduate from CUNY Hunter College. She graduated with a double Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science and English with a Linguistics and Rhetoric concentration, English Departmental Honors and multiple awards for her writing. As a double major in Computer Science, Starasia developed a love for Data Science because it allows her to apply her keen attention to detail, strong communication style, and passion for communicating high-level, abstract, ambiguous concepts, like data, with clarity. For the duration of the Summer, she will be working as a Civic Innovation Corps Data Science Intern for the Utah Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. During her undergraduate studies, Starasia also gained an interest in cyber security after taking a course on the ethic challenges of IT (Information Technology). She enjoys cyber security because it is not just about computing but involves human psychology, too. As a critical essayist, she specializes in works that demand change in the world especially at the intersections of technology and morality.

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LLOYD’S REPORTS 2020 FULL YEAR RESULTS

THE KEY FIGURES REPORTED IN LLOYD’S 2020 FULL YEAR RESULTS ARE:

• Gross written premiums of £35.5bn (2019: £35.9bn)

• Combined ratio of 110.3 % (2019: 102.1%)

• Attritional loss ratio of 51.9% (2019: 57.3%)

• Net investment income of £2.3bn, 2.9% return (2019: £3.5bn, 4.8% return)

• Net resources of £33.9bn (2019: £30.6bn)

• Central solvency ratio of 209% (December 2019: 238%)

Excluding COVID-19 losses, the market delivered an underwriting profit of £0.8bn, demonstrating a significant improvement in Lloyd’s underlying performance. This is supported by 7.8 percentage point improvement of the underlying combined ratio (attritional loss ratio, expense ratio and prior year releases) which has dropped to 87.3%.

Gross written premiums of £35.5bn represent a 1.2% reduction over the same period in 2019. Exceptional market conditions driven by an acceleration in positive rate momentum throughout 2020 saw the market achieve average risk adjusted rate increases on renewal business of 10.8%.

This was offset by a 12.0% reduction in GWP due to the remediation of underperforming business in 2020, reflecting the market’s continued focus on the quality of the business it renews and underwrites.

The 2020 expense ratio saw a 1.5% improvement dropping to 37.2% (2019: 38.7%), and this remains a key area of focus, with the Future at Lloyd’s Blueprint Two solutions and delivery programme central to tackling total acquisition costs and administration expenses.

In 2020, the market’s net resources increased by 10.8% to £33.9bn as at 30 December 2020 (2019: £30.6bn), reinforcing the exceptional strength of Lloyd’s balance sheet with a central solvency ratio of 209% (December 2019: 238%).

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