Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Rise of Political Doxing (schneier.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the teaching-by-example dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Security guru Bruce Schneier predicts a new trend in hacking: political doxing. He points to the recent hack of CIA director Jack Brennan's personal email account and notes that it marks a shift in the purpose of email hacking: "Here, the attacker had a more political motive. He wasn't out to intimidate Brennan; he simply wanted to embarrass him. His personal papers were dumped indiscriminately, fodder for an eager press." Schneier continues, "As people realize what an effective attack this can be, and how an individual can use the tactic to do considerable damage to powerful people and institutions, we're going to see a lot more of it. ... In the end, doxing is a tactic that the powerless can effectively use against the powerful."

5 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Simple counter-measure by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There's a simple counter-measure - don't be ashamed of anything you do. Kind of hard to exert pressure on someone by revealing their personal stuff if they don't give a sh*t.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Simple counter-measure by Shoten · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's a simple counter-measure - don't be ashamed of anything you do. Kind of hard to exert pressure on someone by revealing their personal stuff if they don't give a sh*t.

      Interesting. This is effectively the same as the argument put forth by the surveillance hawks who want to monitor everything. "Don't do anything that makes you look guilty, and there's nothing to worry about."

      The fact is that it's not just about personal shame. People have been pilloried over things they didn't have any problem with personally, but which in turn caused massive backlash...with real consequences...from the public. And also noteworthy is that in this case, personal information (like SSNs, names of family members, etc.) were also put out in the open. So it's not just about shame.

      --

      For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
    2. Re:Simple counter-measure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are things in E-mail that I don't want out, even though I'm not ashamed about them:

      1: Password change/requests. This is easily identifiable info for ID thieves.
      2: Personal items from family/friends. Why does the world need to know that my RV leaks from the cabover and I'm having a carpenter in to rip out the interior and rebuild it?
      3: What I buy from Amazon. Again, nothing illegal, but I don't care to have the fact that my taste (or lack of) in music and literature be for all to see.
      4: I don't want all and sundry to know my work schedule or what type of alarm I use for my house.

      Yes, it is easy to say, "what do you have to hide?", but privacy is still necessary.

  2. I see it differently by Howitzer86 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In the end, doxing is a tactic that the powerless can effectively use against the powerful.

    ...Or keep the powerless in their place.

    We have secrets and embarrassing things on Facebook and other places online that will never go away and can be found if you look hard enough. Most of us don't have the luxury of being groomed from birth to be politicians and avoid these pitfalls.

  3. CIA directory by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When the CIA director has his AOL account "hacked", it is a demonstration of his utter incompetence, not "doxing". And the inability of top government officials to control even their own, valuable private information is politically highly significant, given how much information the US federal government is increasingly collecting about us: detailed financial and banking information, medical records, detailed census information, and lots more.