zlacker

As much as I enjoy and share that link, I don't think it's quite the same: It would actually be more honest if banks had said: "Our deliberately insecure processes were exploited by scammers, but it's some contractor's fault."

In contrast, "identity theft" is trying to re-characterize the type of failure in order to blame the consumer.

> It was garbage, but it had been cooked by an expert. [...] The Grand Trunk’s problems were clearly the result of some mysterious spasm in the universe and had nothing to do with greed, arrogance, and willful stupidity. Oh, the Grand Trunk management had made mistakes—oops, "well-intentioned judgments which, with the benefit of hindsight, might regrettably have been, in some respects, in error"—but these had mostly occurred, it appeared, while correcting "fundamental systemic errors" committed by the previous management. No one was sorry for anything, because no living creature had done anything wrong; bad things had happened by spontaneous generation in some weird, chilly, geometric otherworld, and "were to be regretted."

-- Going Postal by Terry Pratchett