ID "theft" -- so what?

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting "Perry E. Metzger" <perry at piermont.com>:


> So, rephrasing, the problem is not that secret information isn't a
> fine way to establish trust -- it is the pretense that SSNs, your
> mom's birth name or even credit card numbers can be kept secret.
>
> > Identifying information cannot be kept secret.
> 
> I'd amend that to "things like your name, your SSN or your account
> numbers cannot be kept secret..."

I think it's worse than that -- in reality it is any static piece of
information.  It doesn't matter WHAT that piece of information is.  You really
want a challenge-response system to prove both knowledge and liveness of the
information.
 
-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available


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