Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/18

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] what would you do ?
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 17:51:29 -0500

Simon Stevens jotted down the following:

> Have you ever handed your credit card to a waiter in a restaurant? How
> about made a mail order purchase over the telephone? All those companies
> have employees and they have access to your number without anything as
> complicated as e-mail hacking.

The difference is that you have some idea of where your card has been and
that the people working at the restaurant or telephone mail order know this.
Knowing where to look for the perpetrator wouldn't be that hard.

When sending things through email, because of the nature of the Internet,
you can only be sure of two points: the point where the email originated,
and the point where it ends up.  Any and all other points inbetween these
two machines are essentially unknown until the message has actually
travelled from A to B.  The Internet protocol is designed/has evolved in
such a manner that messages/packets can be routed through many, many
machines to try and find a reliable connection through.

There is the potential for your message to be stored on any single one of
those intermediate machines.  There is the potential for your messages to be
copied and sent elsewhere on any of those intermediate machines, without any
trace of this in the original message.  And it's a relatively trivial task
to write a program that scans email text for four blocks of four numbers, or
a single block of sixteen numbers, in the messages body.

Sending your cc no. over unsecure email is NOT analoguous to speaking it
over the phone, or handing it to a waiter in a restaurant.  Not even close.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                     | eVolving      eMergent     eThereal
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       | eNthusiasm    eVanescent   ePhemeral
email: howard.390@osu.edu         | eFficacious   eMbryolic    ePochal
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------

Replies: Reply from Jim Brick <jim_brick@agilent.com> ([Leica] Re: Excitment!)
Reply from Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com> ([Leica] Excitment!)
Reply from Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch> (Re: [Leica] what would you do ?)