Operation n

I really enjoyed this movie . . . I have it in my collection somewhere :-)

With cryptography approaching that sobering new era, scientists in Israel are reporting development of what they term the first molecular system capable of processing password entries.

Electronic keypad locks long have been fixtures on home security systems and other devices that require a password. The new study, however, describes a keypad lock based on molecules that fluoresce only in response to the correct sequences of three input signals.

"By harnessing the principles of molecular Boolean logic, we have designed a molecular device that mimics the operation of an electronic keypad, a common security circuit used for numerous applications in which access to an object or data is to be restricted to a limited number of persons," the researchers state. "The development of a molecular-scale keypad lock is a particularly attractive goal as it represents a new approach to protecting information at the molecular scale."

References:

• Science Daily

In 1996 someone got into her computer and personal files. A woman then assumed Frank’s identity and rang up over $50,000 in credit card debt. Frank wrote a book about being a victim of ‘identity theft,’ From Victim to Victor, and has a web site on how to protect yourself from this crime.. http://www.identitytheft.org/

What your particular experience with identity theft? How did it happen?

I was a victim of identity theft in 1996. I got a phone call from a bank that I’d never heard of and they said, “Is this Mari Frank?” And I said, “Yes.” And the woman said, “This is the Bank of New York in Delaware, and we want to know why you haven’t paid your $11,000 bill to us.” And I said, “I’m sorry, I’m running out now. You have the wrong name, the wrong number. I don’t know who you are. I’ve got to go.” And the woman said, “Wait a minute, is this your Social Security number and your birth date?” And of course, by then, I started to get worried, and I said, “What are you looking at?” She said, “I’m looking at the billing statements that we have for you and your credit report. And I said, “Where did you send those billing statements, where did you send that credit card?” She gave me an address four hours from my home that I’d never heard of. And I said, “I’ve never lived there.”

And so then I knew right away that it was fraud, and I asked her what else was on the credit report. Obviously, she wouldn’t tell me. I ordered my credit reports. I found that over $50,000 worth of credit was stolen in my name.

Was the person who “stole” you an educated person? Was she computer literate?

[…]The person who stole my identity . . . was really a secretary and she was working in a law office. And she had access to the computers and the internet. And because the law firm had a subscription with a re-seller of credit reports, she could go online and order several different credit reports.

How widespread is identity theft?

Identity theft has become an epidemic. In the United States, we know that there were over 700,000 victims last year. And that’s just a very modest calculation, based on the fact that one of the three credit reporting agencies received 62,000 calls a month. Now it’s starting to happen in other countries as well, because we get calls from Japan, from England, from France and from Canada. . . .

I get the impression that most of this is one-shot theft and abuse of somebody else’s credit card.

No, this is not just one-shot abuse. That is one form of identity theft. . . . . . [But] you can pay to get someone’s Social Security number on dozens of information broker sites. Then you’re talking about complete identity takeover. When somebody gets your Social Security number– at least in the United States–that’s what they’re going to use, because that’s the key identifier in identity theft. They get that Social Security number, and from that, they can apply for credit cards and credit lines. They establish a whole new profile, and it goes to an address that’s other than yours. […]

Surely somebody is doing something about this. Surely people in authority recognize the perils here.

Well, people are starting to recognize this, because we’re bringing this to the forefront. There are two bills pending in the United States Congress right now. One is called the Identity Theft Protection Act of 2000, and the other one is the Social Security Protection Act of 2000. The Social Security Act of 2000 says that you cannot sell a Social Security number anywhere for money– that it would be illegal to do so.

The Identity Theft Protection Act also addresses some of the issues about the credit reporting agencies and the credit card companies, who have been so lax in verifying and authenticating identity. For example, when a creditor gets an application with my name and it’s an address that’s not on my profile, if this bill passes, they would have to verify it before they could issue credit. So there would actually be sanctions for a company who issued a credit card to a fraudulent address without checking.

So, yes, we are starting. . . . The problem is, if you have laws in the United Sates and you don’t have the same laws in other countries, we’ve got all this conflict of laws, because the internet is global.

References:

• Frontline

Research by security firm Symantec suggests that the raw value of a WoW account is now higher than a credit card and its associated verification data.

One Chinese group known to be using the animated cursor flaw scored some success in February when it managed to hack a Superbowl website and use it to host code for spyware.

Analysis of that malicious software showed that it lay dormant on a victims machine until they ran World of Warcraft (WoW) at which point it captured login data and sent it to the hacking group.

The group’s enthusiastic use of the cursor flaw suggests it is trying to do the same again.

The online fantasy game now has more than eight million active players around the world.

One card can be sold for up to $6 (£3) suggests Symantec, but a WoW account will be worth at least $10. An account that has several high level characters associated with it could be worth far more as the gold and rare items can be sold for real cash.

• BBC

FireSail I assume this is a Hollywood coined word from the latest Die Hard 4 movie starring Bruce Willis. I had not heard of this term before the movie, although the dramatised hacking techniques utilised to bring down a country have been known for a while. All said in done, this movie rocked!

FireSail in the movie involves three processes:

• Control the traffic and communications (see Electromagnetic Dominance)
• Knock out or more likely disrupt finance sector
• Electrical control