P2P and Identity

Here is another amusing article that makes a few points for me (below):

1. Stupid always wins
2. Default settings should be avoided at all costs
3. I am glad I stopped using all the P2P appliacations years ago

There are some other interesting things that this brings to light -

a. Since a *true* identity is harder to come by, does that make identity management or identity proof more valuable?
b. With each identity theft publicized, will that make us more vigilant in protecting our identities?
c. Why does no one seem to understand that the only ways to prevent identity theft are to not publicize your identity, and control access to it? Navy? Hello?
d. Is identity management really something that is a second step to identity based access or proving identity in the first place?


June 23, eWeek - Cyber criminals use P2P tools for identity. Cyber criminals are multiplying quickly and becoming more sophisticated in the ways in which they take advantage of unwitting Internet individual users and companies, said Howard Schmidt, a co-architect of the national cyber-security policy presented to the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board in 2003. At an SD Forum seminar Thursday, June 22 Schmidt said Peer-to-peer
(P2P) networks such as Limewire, Kazaa, Grokster, and others aren't helping to quell the increase in crimes committed via the Internet. The Internet cultivates careless and ignorant use of P2P applications as a major part of the current identity theft problem. People who use P2P applications to download music, software, and photos may leave themselves wide open to identity theft by simply being unaware of their computer settings. "One woman's credit-card information was found in such disparate places as Troy, MI, Tobago, and Slovenia. Why? We found that the "shared" folder in her music-downloading application was in fact making readily available her entire "My Documents" folder to that app's entire P2P audience, 24 hours per day," Schmidt said. By typing in common search terms such as "bank May statement," or "stop payment" in Limewire's search function, personal information is often getting into the wrong hands, enabling cyber-looting.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1980963,00.asp