Hi,
Security, of all types, isn't about making something impossible to find out. That itself is impossible. Security is about making things difficult to find out. The degree of difficulty needs to be commiserate with the degree of security needed.
I don't know how good a hacker the author of that blog is. I do know that what he did any of us could do with just google and web phone books. Someone using the full arsenal of tools could get a lot more starting with as little as the IP address from one post. I know a person whos job was just that, as a security expert for a large corporation.
So, it's not whether that POed psychopath with the eight inch knife can find you -- he can if he knows what he's doing. It's whether said psychopath will get bored before he does and quit because the effort just isn't worth it.
And, yes, there were phone books before computers. But they weren't much fun to use, and I've never heard of someone trolling a phone book for victims. Although some creeps did, I've heard, look for listings in a woman's name to target for obscene calls.
--Pete
(07-07-2010, 09:21 PM)swirly Wrote: What I would like to see with this is a comparison of what can be found without the real name and what can be found with it.
Security, of all types, isn't about making something impossible to find out. That itself is impossible. Security is about making things difficult to find out. The degree of difficulty needs to be commiserate with the degree of security needed.
I don't know how good a hacker the author of that blog is. I do know that what he did any of us could do with just google and web phone books. Someone using the full arsenal of tools could get a lot more starting with as little as the IP address from one post. I know a person whos job was just that, as a security expert for a large corporation.
So, it's not whether that POed psychopath with the eight inch knife can find you -- he can if he knows what he's doing. It's whether said psychopath will get bored before he does and quit because the effort just isn't worth it.
And, yes, there were phone books before computers. But they weren't much fun to use, and I've never heard of someone trolling a phone book for victims. Although some creeps did, I've heard, look for listings in a woman's name to target for obscene calls.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?