Sean’s Blog

Over at Security Focus, Brian Krebs has published a report from the FDIC detailing the overall trend in computer crimes for 2007.  It may look heavy, but just glancing over it provides some good data.  Although the report focuses on the financial sector mostly there are some interesting points that it makes.

Some interesting points in the report:
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Maybe you have heard of Tor, a way to anonymize your internet traffic. Maybe you have even used it. I have and occasionally do. But as it gains popularity, it becomes more important to understand the limitations of Tor and internet anonymity. Most users confuse anonymity and privacy. Tor provides anonymity, but not privacy.

If that statement is confusing to you, your not alone. Recently a Swedish security researcher set up a sniffer (a computer with a network card that captures all network traffic) on the 5 Tor servers his company ran. He ended up capturing login credentials and messages, from embassies, human rights groups and corporations.

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Bruce Schneier has penned an interesting article over at Wired in defense of leaving your wireless network unprotected. Basically his argument is that the chance of a protected network saving you from some sort of abuse is small, and that open access points are a courtesy too your neighbors.
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Previously I had written about some ways to slow down some of the dead tree spam that everyone gets. Yesterday I saw an announcement on lifehacker that could cut this down even more.The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) has removed a small but inconvenient barrier for getting off of their mailing lists. Previously they would charge a dollar for removal of your name and address from there lists. No longer though. They will now remove your name for free. You can opt-out here:

https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/mps_consumer_description.php

Note: The DMA does require a credit card for validation, but they will not charge anything according to the site.

Salon.com had an article about how to stop junk mail that I saw the other day.  Most of the ways they focused on to stop it were paid services and according to the article, they have done a pretty good job of stopping junk mail at a pretty reasonable cost (between $14-$41).  Being somewhat strapped for cash at the moment I was looking for something free.  Then at the bottom, I found this - OptOutPrescreen.com.  It is a way to opt-out of the preapproval offers from credit card companies that make up a good portion of my junk mail.  The site opts you out for the big four credit buereus (Experian, TransUnion, Innovis, and Equifax).

Just doing a little more browsing, I found out that state DMVs can sell your information, but are required to offer an opt out.  My state (Ohio) requires an opt in, so they should not be giving my info away but you may want to check with your Dept of Motor Vehicles.  The Direct Marketing Association also offers an opt opt-out program for $1.

As always, you should make sure your phone number is on the Federal Do Not Call list.  It currently expires every couple of years, so if you did it when it first came out, you may have to reregister your number.  I actually just saw on the news that congress is going to make the list permanent soon.