The housing slump in turn brought to light some very poor lending practices, especially for subprime mortgages extended to less-creditworthy borrowers. Relative to the global financial system, the market for subprime mortgages was quite small, probably less than 1 percent of global financial assets. How, then, did problems in this market appear to have such widespread consequences?
Employees, consumers and public officials need to be educated about the risks that can arise from new technologies. The financial authorities are in the best position to promote long-term education initiatives and cyber awareness campaigns.