Fighting Net crime with code / Surge in phishing e-mails to take spotlight at cryptography conference

R.A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Mon Feb 14 10:40:39 EST 2005


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Fighting Net crime with code
 Surge in phishing e-mails to take spotlight at cryptography conference
 - Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer
 Monday, February 14, 2005

Every year, a bunch of cryptographers throw a big party, business mixer and
study session in the Bay Area.

 In their effort to make the world love the science of code making and
breaking as much as they do, they invoke dramatic historical uses of
cryptography: the etchings of the ancient Maya, the Navajo code talkers of
World War II.

 This time, the RSA Conference, opening today at Moscone Center in San
Francisco, has crime as its theme. The 11,000 attendees will hear the tale
of how federal agent Elizebeth Smith Friedman brought down a major ring of
rum runners by cracking their sophisticated codes.

 The timing couldn't be more apt. More people than ever are not just
shopping but conducting their finances online, with 45 percent of Americans
paying bills over the Internet in 2004, according to research group
Gartner. That's a 70 percent increase from 2003, a shift that is making the
Internet more attractive than ever to criminals.

 "Crime on the Internet is probably the fastest-growing business there,"
said Ken Silva, vice president of networking and information security at
VeriSign, the Mountain View company that secures Web sites and Internet
transactions.

 Phishing e-mails -- those little fraudulent notes asking you to "confirm"
your bank account number, credit card number, ATM password or locker
combination -- have been growing by 38 percent a month on average,
according to the industry's Anti-Phishing Working Group. Gartner warns that
phishing will erode the growth of e-commerce if nothing is done.

 The folks gathering at the Moscone Center this week are the ones who do
battle with all that, using -- you guessed it -- cryptography.

 They're software developers, marketers, academics, business leaders --
including conference speakers Bill Gates of Microsoft, John Chambers of
Cisco, Symantec's John Thompson and VeriSign's Stratton Sclavos -- and a
few current and former government officials, such as Amit Yoran, who
resigned in October after one year as the nation's top cyber security
official.

 Because phishing has shown the downside of using just a user name and
password to access an online bank account, a panel featuring Yoran and
other experts will look at safer ways for consumers to identify themselves
on the Internet.

 Another panel will address businesses' fear that adding more security
could make e-commerce and e-banking sites too cumbersome for consumers to
use.

 Another topic will be whether software companies should be held liable
when bugs in their products allow theft to happen and whether the
government should regulate software safety as the Federal Aviation
Administration regulates airline safety. Because most hackers and viruses
get into computers through holes in Microsoft's nearly ubiquitous Windows
software, Microsoft is always central in such discussions.

 But that is not a favorite topic for Microsoft leaders, and the preview
blurb for Gates' speech, scheduled for Tuesday morning, makes no mention of
that controversy. Instead, Gates is to discuss "his perspective on the
state of security today, the importance of continued innovation, and
advances in Microsoft's platform, products and technologies designed to
better protect customers."

 The conference is run by Bedford, Mass., cryptography company RSA
Security, which also has an office in San Mateo.

 E-mail Carrie Kirby at ckirby at sfchronicle.com.

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-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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