FireElfGuard

RE: passwords & security. A keylogger solves password issues for an attacker. The holes in computer O/Ses allow them to plant them on out of date systems (is your windows up to date?) My concern with online banking isn't the encryption between the pc and the bank(/credit union). It's the personal pc. Security swiss cheese in most cases. Which then leads them into having your pwd and thus owning your bank account. ... and potentially your credit. One case of fraud in Canada lost someone their house. They went away on vacation and came back to people living in their house. Legally. Don't know the exact details, but these things can happen (just not at all likely--like 'win the lottery', or in this case 'lose the lottery' likely). Still: back to passwords: I have a few low level worth passwords, and a lot of unique (shielded by frame of reference) passwords. That is: if you break one of my passwords (unless it a the low worth one), you won't be able to guess any of the others. Further on computer crime: In town here, someone installed a credit card swiping machine at a local movie theatre. Used that device to harvest a bunch of cards... and were caught. One more crime thing (it's a doozy). An international criminal got caught because of a Walmart employee's anger. The guy was angry because someone parked a rental van in the far end of the Walmart parking lot. Right near the new bank. The bank with 4 bank machines that was opening it's doors Monday. Welll.... the renter of the van made the mistake of using his own credit card to rent the van. The van was used to empty the bank machines of their cash (which was loaded Friday, with the doors to be unlocked at the grand opening Monday). So: the bank machines were full. F-U-L-L. (Just noticed it is a 4 letter word!). The thief had got a job with the construction company that built the bank. So, he built a handle to help him open up the bank machines. No one noticed the extra handle... bizarre. The guy had left the country (why hang around when you're done?). He was in Egypt committing credit card crimes when he was apprehended. The local RCMP (to Winnipeg) were credited with his capture. Here's a link to the article. art thief caught due to Walmart guy

I ran a computer user group in the 90s. At that time, the average computer crime in Canada netted $400,000.00CDN. Things have progressed() since then. Privacy concerns: now include 'tagged' photos in Facebook. With so many tagged photos out there, we're moving to the age when someone with a phone (with a camera, which they almost all have now) can capture your image and interrogate a DB and get your name, age, credit card info, etc... Digital identity (with low error rates) from biometrics (face) is coming. Got me to thinking that my facebook pictures need to go... and quick before they're harvested. Or is that just paranoia? FFT