I'm not familiar with HSM [1] but is any internal attack possible, like bribing an employee or getting a trojan on somebody's computer inside the bank?
This is a HSM for people like me a few minutes ago:
So obviously in cases of personnel threats you need different controls.
On HSM setups I've seen the keys are under dual-control (i.e. two different people have half the key and in the event that it needs re-entered, both have to enter their keys independently), along with other general controls (hiring background checks etc)
That's not to say it's impossible, just there are controls in place.
Now in all this I'm not trying to suggest that bank security is perfect, it's obviously not, but that particular concerns about password strength and threats of attack on this could be misplaced, due to lack of understanding of the controls in place.
On HSM setups I've seen the keys are under dual-control (i.e. two different people have half the key and in the event that it needs re-entered, both have to enter their keys independently), along with other general controls (hiring background checks etc)
That's not to say it's impossible, just there are controls in place.
Now in all this I'm not trying to suggest that bank security is perfect, it's obviously not, but that particular concerns about password strength and threats of attack on this could be misplaced, due to lack of understanding of the controls in place.