Ex Post Facto | 3 Indian Men Indicted in Stock Scheme

Now that CNBC's last half-baked marketing ploy, the "Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge", has ended, I believe it prudent to point out that the game's sponsor, OptionsXpress, was, themselves, one of the on-line equity trading brokers who had been hacked, resulting in the unauthorized use a few of their clients' accounts (see link below).

I'm not sure how others may feel about it, but for me, any company that has suffered poor security issues for on-line business doesn't bode well for future on-line endeavors without first offering real detailed reassurances.

Put into perspective, when you compare the real cost of mounting other forms advertising aimed at reviving CNBC's recent soggy viewer ratings, this public invitational game is a bargain; especially if it concomitantly has no significant increase in risk exposure. Put another way, from CNBC's point of view, it may have been a little fucked-up but in the grand scheme of things it was still majorly cheap -- so bombs away, as they say.

This bit of scary news on OptionsXpress' technical competence (or lack thereof) did help to explain the alarmingly awkward first week of CNBC's sweepstakes promotion. It was that little faux-pas that effectively let out the last bit of "fun" in the game's proverbial sails for me; and so I bowed out shortly thereafter.

Link > http://biz.yahoo.com/ap//brokerage_hackers.html?.v=4