Posted on Thu 08/25/05 in Technical Interleude
Identity theft and information-phishing emails and viruses are becoming more a part of our daily lives than ever before. It is the responsibility of every individual to protect their own identity. If you believe this responsibility belongs solely to our government, financial institutions, and employers, you will most certainly fall behind the curve and be subject to an identity attack of some kind.
Identity theft can occur in many ways, and it is often carried out through several channels of information acquisition. The channel I am specifically concerned about today is: e-mail. Preventing identity theft is a best-effort cause, meaning that there is always a chance you will be a victim, no matter the precautions taken. But, an effort must still be made to deter or deflect the majority of attacks.
Take a minute to think about the information you’ve transmitted carelessly through email. You’ve probably sent your address or phone number, upcoming weekend plans or work meeting schedules without ever thinking that your email could be being read by someone planning to steal your identity. Your emails are being transmitted in plain text. Consider the text below as example email that you might send to a friend:
Hi Julie,
Are you still coming over tonight? If you are, the gate code for my development is 12345.
See you then,
Jessica
A hacker with moderate skills or a co-worker on your trusted company network might have the capability to view your email. Using a free utility called Ethereal, your email can be viewed while it is being sent in PLAIN TEXT. Think again about when you’ve sent even more sensitive information, like a password, bank account number, or even your social security number through email. Very scary.
To being addressing this problem, you might want to become familiar with the concept of digital signatures and digital certificates. By engaging in using digital certificates to encrypt your email, you can transmit your emails in a manner that is much more difficult for a voyeur to read. Encrypted email will help to protect the sensitive information you are sending; this technology is also used to protect information when you perform many online transactions—often marked by the closed lock symbol at the bottom right hand corner of your browser). At some point, using a digital certificate will be a regular daily practice, so you might as well be prepared.
You can start by going to thawte.com and applying for a free (at time of writing) personal digital email certificate. Start signing your emails with your digital signature and begin investigating other ways you can use your certificate. It will take a bit of practice to get going, but when your friend or business associate asks for your public key, you’ll know what they’re talking about.
For more information on the topic of identity theft, visit http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm
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