funsec mailing list archives
Re: [privacy] privacy Digest, Vol 10, Issue 22
From: "Brian Loe" <knobdy () gmail com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:47:24 -0600
On 1/24/07, Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu <Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu> wrote:
On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:11:34 CST, Randall M said:Has this always gone on and we never heard of it? Or is it really becoming so prevalent now?It's been going on for a while - corporations and government agencies have *always* been losing laptops since laptops were invented. The only thing that has changed is that it gets admitted to more often now. Before, if a laptop with sensitive data got swiped by a crackhead who fenced it to supply their drug habit, it was just ignored because the chances of the data actually getting found/used was low. Now that the fences are getting smarter and potentially shopping any found data around, the threat model is different.... (Of course, I'm handwaving - does anybody have hard data showing that the fences *are* getting smarter, or that the crackheads are actually targeting laptops with potentially interesting data (which requires identifying a particular person with a laptop)?
No, there are no fences. There are dirtbag pawn shops and there always have been. "Car shoppers" - an old street term for thieves who "shop" cars for things to steal - do not have fences. In fact, forget the pawn shops, most of these guys sell to people they know, who are often "legitimate" people who will either use the laptop themselves or sell it on ebay (none of whom give a rats ass about the data....yet!). Hollywood isn't reality... I know personally that this has gone on for a long while, and would bet that its gone on for as long as there have been portable computers, but the reason we're hearing about it more now is that many or most are REQUIRED BY LAW to notify customers of possible breaches these days. _______________________________________________ privacy mailing list privacy () whitestar linuxbox org http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy
Current thread:
- Re: [privacy] privacy Digest, Vol 10, Issue 22 Randall M (Jan 24)
- Re: [privacy] privacy Digest, Vol 10, Issue 22 Valdis . Kletnieks (Jan 24)
- Re: [privacy] privacy Digest, Vol 10, Issue 22 Brian Loe (Jan 24)
- Re: [privacy] privacy Digest, Vol 10, Issue 22 Valdis . Kletnieks (Jan 24)