WMML

What Makes Me Laugh...  Reviewing an Attenborough doco, listening to David enthusing about another creature "perfectly adapted to its environment," that's what.  All creatures great and small show compromise, there's not one "perfect adaptation" because if there was such, that creature would take over the environment.

What we understand of the selection and adaptation process, we know depends on the inherent flaws of the system, starting with the semirandom mutations of the DNA. Every system has parts with flaws, and every other system that can take advantage of those flaws, will.  It seems like the eventual aim of natural selection is to produce a biological equivalent of "grey goo" that will just coat the Earth in a thin layer, one organism.

So when there's a new niche in the "e-ecosystem," it's not surprising to find that an organism has started to explore it and try and make a living at it.  Which is pretty much what you're seeing here, in this article.  It's a wide open ecosystem, it can and does provide money and goods if approached right, and therefore equips anyone able to operate here to better survive, without needing skills like checkout operator at fast food stores, office clerking skills, or any other such.

It's gainful, if not legal, employment.  Being a banger or a burglar are also gainful, if not legal.  There's a niche - taking your stuff, your money - and some organisms (burglars) take it by one means, other organisms (banking and financial institutions) take it by more acceptable means.

The important thing to note is that you're the niche, the burglar and bank are the exploiting organisms.  Similarly, your money and your personal data (and therefore, access to your money held by the banks)  are now a niche online, and getting exploited.  It's survival of the fittest, now it's up to you to shore up defenses and repel the skript kiddies.