[TriLUG] Identity Theft (was Re: Security)

[John Franklin]

On Fri, May 17, 2002 at 12:28:08PM -0400, Andrew C. Oliver wrote:
> M. Mueller wrote:
> 
> >On Friday 17 May 2002 11:31 am, <Andrew C. Oliver> wrote:
> >>Lets talk likelyhood per amount of effort.  Its fairly unlikely I'd be a
> >>target due to the pure lack of gain.  
> >>
> >
> >Identity theft is the concern.  Unsecure wireless networks could provide 
> >enough information about a person to impersonate them.  By impersonating 
> >someone you can get a line of credit and leave the real indentity owner 
> >with the responsibility of paying off the bills.  
> >
> And the amount of effort you'd need to go through to get this out of my 
> wireless network versus just walk by and pick up my garbage kind of make 
> me less concerned about that.

It happened to my sister.  She ordered checks through the bank and they
never showed up.  Turns out someone stole them (at the printer's, IIRC) 
and starting using them.  She notified the bank and closed the account
immediately, but that didn't stop a number of items from showing up on
her credit report.  It took months for the police to finally arrest the
woman.

Identity theft is a serious concern, but there are so many ways to have
your identity stolen that the only real way to protect yourself is to
become a blank, buy everything with cash, and never use your SSN.  Since
we need to use our SSN to get a job and file tax returns, we can't
really isolate ourselves.

Privacy is a huge issue.  Politically, it'll take a major failure
somewhere before it takes a front stage position.  When it does,
technology solutions that protect privacy will become all the rage.  The
crux of the technology problem is that anything that can be made can be
forged.  Your signature can be forged.  A card with a magnetic strip or
a chip can be duplicated.  Biometrics?  Fooled with gummi bears.  (was
that article posted here, or did I see in on Another List?)

Sadly, it's a situation that doesn't really need new technology, it
needs the systems in place to work as intended.  None of the checks
written by the woman who stole my sister's checks should have been
accepted.  The signature was nowhere near a match.


jf
-- 
John Franklin
franklin at elfie.org
ICBM: 35°43'56"N 78°53'27"W