Still hogging the tech news headlines is the incredible story of Jérôme Kerviel, a lowly trader at Société Générale, the third-largest bank in France. He managed to subvert the compliance mechanism of the bank and perpetrate a $7 billion banking fraud –the biggest in financial history.

Variously described as anything from the "the 'French Nick Leeson", to the "Che Guevara of finance", it has been widely reported that Kerviel would have needed to be a genius on a par with Einstein to have been able to single-handedly bypass the bank's intricate and complex compliance mechanisms – implemented at a huge cost in 2000.

However, in Richard Morris's excellent investigative piece on the issue, it turns out that it may not have been that difficult after all. According to a source quoted in this article:

"He [Kerviel] could have hacked into the system in a number of ways. Look at it like this – the answer is that all database management systems have functions that enable them to control lots of databases and of course they hold the information on all data in their own database tables…I would guess that Kerviel stacked up a number of fake identities, added these to the database, and used passwords and log-ins to hack into the SocGen server to cover his tracks."

No wonder this story has caused shock waves throughout the IT world.

Indeed, the story just seems to grow in Machiavellian intrigue the more one reads about it. It turns out that, just last year, Jérôme Kerviel's elder brother, Olivier, had resigned from the country's largest bank (BNP Paribas) after concerns were raised about his trading methods.

In the latest "smoke and mirrors" twist, BNP Paribas were said to be considering a possible takeover bid for the weakened Société Générale, prompting the French government to issue a warning against any potential foreign bidders – "the state will not remain a bystander and leave Société Générale at the mercy of any predator". This sets the French state on a collision course with the EU commission, who would oppose any such protectionism, on the grounds that it would break the rules of free movement of capital.

No wonder this story has caused shockwaves throughout the world, in general.

On a final note, I'm sure everyone by now has felt the considerably smaller shockwaves that accompanied Microsoft's announcement that SQL Server 2008

Would slip to Q3. Therefore, I merely provide a brief round up of the various reactions to the news, from our own Steve Jones, to Joel Spolsky, to Phil Factor.

As I noted in my blog, I think most people would be highly tolerant of a small delay in release date, provided they get the final product right. Mind you, SQL 2005 was delayed by two years, and did they get that right? I extend the challenge offered in my Simple-Talk blog to readers of DBW: post as a comment to this editorial your nominations for the SQL 2005 feature that could have done with an extra year in development. All entries will go into a draw to win a $50 Amazon voucher.

Tony Davis