What's lurking in your PC?

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Security is an illusion

As long as data exists, there will be those who want to get at it, exploit it, and get rich off it. There's nothing like an easy buck to entice the criminal element.

This whole idea of browsers being insecure is nothing new; heck, the Net itself has been insecure ever since it was opened up to commercial interests. Let's face it -- the email I send someone bounces all throughout the network until it gets to its destination. How many people could be reading my mail?

And if you want to talk about insecure, let's mention the millions of people who simply deposit their personal information inthe trash can then throw it out without giving it a second thought. You think hackers and phishers have a monopoly on identity theft? Go through your neighbors trash sometime and learn just how much you can learn about them.

If you don't want to let anyone know you exist, fine. There's a cabin in Montana, last used by the Unabomber, that's looking for an occupant. If you want to live out here in the "real" world, you simply need to learn to be careful. I use my credit cards liberally and have store cards to get discounts. And whenever I get junk mail I shred it and use it to start a fire in my fireplace or I send it back to them in their own pre-paid envelope. Let them figure it out!

Freedom of information, like freedom to live, comes at a price, and that price is the slow erosion of privacy. Unless we're going to assign everyone an identification number and write all our emails in code, we'd better start learning to live with the idea that nothing is really a secret anymore.

Posted by: Billosaur   Posted on: 10/19/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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