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What Web Surfers Can Find Out About You
cweditor writes in with an updated version of a story the likes of which you might have read before, What the Web Knows About You. But reporter Rob Mitchell found out vastly more about himself (his research subject) online than he could have even a year or two ago. The big difference is that state and local governments are putting online digitized records, often with Social Security numbers and other personal details intact. Mitchell ends by questioning how much good it does for banks or credit card companies to require 4, 5, or more independent identity "factors" before providing access to account details, when most or all of the factors they request can be found online about nearly anyone.
I googled my name and found 3 obituaries.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
I have complained about this crap for years to my credit card companies, phone companies, mortgage company, and even my college. How can they claim to protect your account information when their verification questions are all publicly available information? (In the case of the colleges, students are often asked to sign in for roll or exams using a social security number, and that sheet is either passed around or otherwise completely viewable.)
At least some allow you to select a special pass phrase. Only one of my vendors will not allow me access to the account if I do not provide the pass phrase. Every one else has a way around that.
Security. Pfah.
Real multi-factor authentication requires some thought and the expenditure of time and money. Is it any wonder that some banks have implemented extremely LAME (mother's maiden name, pick a picture) versions of two factor authentication. Ideally, it should be (choose at least two): something you know, something you have, and something you are (and perhaps somewhere you are). Something you know is typically an ID / password pair. Something you have can include a one time pad (Gibson's perfect paper password), an RSA dongle, a Yubikey, or even a cell phone (bank sends key as text message). Something you are is biometrics: fingerprint readers, retina readers, etc. (There's an amusing and horrible joke based in this in a "Red Dwarf" episode). Finally, you can have location based authentication: IP / Mac addresses (potentially spoofable), physically secure workstations (with optional armed guard), etc.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Check it out, you will all be surprised what it will find:
http://www.pipl.com/
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
<Page 1>
Why
Cant
You
<Page 2>
Provide
A
Link
<Page 3>
So
Everything
is
<Page 4>
on
One
Page?
how abut a link here
Psha. Search all you want, and you'll never discover whether "rw^j8*=1IF9d" is my mother's maiden name, my favorite desert, or where I got my first kiss. And it won't matter anyway, 'cause that's not actually one of the strings I use.
--MarkusQ
P.S. And for an added level of security, I'm not really me, nor am I the person I told the bank I was.
What? Anonymous Coward? you dare me to publish my SSN? Get lost. It does not make sense for me to do it alone. But if the entire person-SSN map of all people becomes public, it will actually help us all.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Do people regularly google their own SSNs? I have contemplated trying mine, but I'm a little apprehensive about where it might end up and what it might get electronically tied to.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
My credit union suddenly adopted an "enhanced security" system where they come up with 10 personal questions (you don't have a choice which ones) and you have to provide answers to each one.
I looked over the questions, and decided I didn't want anyone knowing that information, even my bank. Called them and asked to opt out of the program. Was told that their system administrator said it was a new federal requirement. (Is this true? I haven't seen this practice at the competing credit union that has my car loan, or at the bank that has my mortgage.) They said it was for my own protection and there was no way to opt out.
I asked if I could use an additional, randomly generated password instead. (I already used a random string for my main password.) She said no, it had to be personal information.
I said it was an invasion of privacy and asked them what happens when their system administrator scoops all this personal information for his own use? (That was probably unfair, but I was getting annoyed at that point.) I pointed out that if everyone was required to use this system (which I still hadn't verified), Sysadmin from bank A could take your answers and use them to compromise your accounts B, C and D -- For instance posing as the account owner and answering the "magic question" (which is often a personal question) to reset the account password. She said that she didn't know about that, but I had to live with it.
I'm willing to bet that the "enhanced security" answers aren't even encrypted.
So with a little experimentation, I discovered that the "enhanced security" system will take any string as an answer. So, for instance, to the question "what is your maternal grandmother's middle name" (I actually don't know the answer.) you could answer "20382-0qopw" (string was generated by pounding on my keyboard) and the answer will be accepted.
I also found out that you could put random strings (or a rude phrase) for each answer, or use the same passphrase for every answer, and the system will accept it.
This opened whole new vistas of "security".
So, for my daughter's account, which doesn't have much to lose, I set all her "enhanced security" questions to the same passphrase, (you will never guess it, don't even try) and set up different passphrases for each security question for my accounts.
One big win to making up your answers is that a bad guy can't use the information to break into accounts in other institutions. Even if it's sold to a third party or published on the internet, the information only works with that one account. Moreover, there's no way someone can research my family history and come up with "asawi0egh" for my mother's maiden name. (Again, generated by slapping the keyboard a few times.)
In other words, don't buy into it. Treat it as just another password that you make up yourself.
How does one keep track of all these passwords? Find a secure password keeper application and use it religiously. Sourceforge is a good place to look. Some even work on PDAs.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I used to think that people who were afraid to give out their SSN probably also slept with tinfoil hats on. Now I only give it to companies that have to report something to the IRS. If someone isn't reporting income to the IRS, they don't need a SSN.
Think Deeply.
I don't usually have these problems. Just use someone else's identity, bank account, gmail etc, and you're set.
I recall reading the last few of Arthur C. Clarke's books; he mentioned, a few times, a social movement geared toward intentionally providing misleading and incorrect information about people on the web to provide for a more anonymous society... or at least one where you couldn't find everything out about someone with just a click of a mouse.
I'm actually quite surprised something like that has not actually come into being, because I believe the odds of stopping your info from going online is pretty close to zero. But if you have a bunch of other misleading stuff, at least only you and your friends know what's true and what's not.
It's an interesting concept.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011