Privacy

I recently came across an interesting article regarding the increasing problems with thieves targeting schools for identify theft.

The article mentions an incident where a hacker broke into a database at a school in El Paso, and managed to retrieve 63,000 Social Security numbers (SSNs) of students. 

This is a gold-mine for an identity thief.  SSNs can be used to get credit cards, take out loans, and generally "create" money for the thief.  Furthermore, the SSNs of young people are generally "clean", meaning they have no credit history attached, making it far easier to get credit with them.  Finally, if the SSNs used are those of very young students, it may be years before that student actually tries to use it to get credit legitimately, and thus years before the identity theft is detected. Read more...

We know they are.

I spent a few days looking for a new comforter for my bed and then suddenly noticed ads for bedding popping up on my Yahoo email page. (I also saw ads for training pull-up pants, so the alogorithm is clearly not perfect!)

I love how I can search for any business on my iPhone and get directions. Clearly, my phone has to know where I am to do that.

I think it’s a nuisance to type in (not to mention, remember) passwords and usernames for the sites I regularly visit, so, sure, go ahead and save those for me.

And when I’m bored sometimes, I like to type my old addresses and the addresses of my friends into Google maps to see what the houses look like now.

But when Facebook keeps asking me if I want to connect my phone number to my account, I keep saying, “No!” and get irritated that I can’t answer it once and for all because it keeps asking me. And, I confess, that I was a little irritated when a friend of mine tagged a photo I took of the two of us with my whole name.Read more...

Much of the way that we concieve of our network design comes out of prior models of computing, and as such, isn't necessarily applicable to modern situations. Primary among these conceptions is that our networks have a "perimeter", a logical dividing line between what is "inside" our network, and what is "outside". More and more, drawing such a line does not equate with the reality of network access, which has significant ramifications for network design, and security.Read more...