The first confirmed victim - 46-year-old security expert Paul Thomas Morgan - was named in a statement by the family previously released via the Foreign Office, while 59-year-old planning manager Kenneth Whiteside, from Glenrothes, Fife and systems supervisor Garry Barlow, 49, from Liverpool have been named as victims by relatives.

BBC: Algeria crisis: Hostage's wife 'so proud'

"Up until that point, every computer was one of a kind, " says George Gray, a systems programming supervisor at the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, who also writes a Univac newsletter.

CNN: Machines on a mission

Unable to act as an ongoing supervisor of Asia's financial systems, all it can do is demand reforms that may or may not be carried through (though some, such as opening the region's banks to foreign competition, will be harder to reverse than others).

ECONOMIST: Kill or cure?

Instead, we rely on a patchwork of authorities, largely derived from our role as a banking supervisor, as well as on moral suasion, to help ensure that the various payment and settlement systems have the necessary procedures and controls in place to manage the risks they face.

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