Is the internet going to be rendered unusable by crime?
Discussion
We all know about spam, phishing, rich Nigerian Princes with spare millions and other nefarious mildly inconvenient criminal activities.
But are organised criminals and increasingly much more sophisticated damaging attacks going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg?
Will hacking, ransomware and data theft just render the whole thing unworkable and unsustainable?
The growing threat and real prospect of having your identity, IP or data stolen or encrypted seems to be getting worse each day.
Big companies IT seems to be falling like ninepins at the moment, and I see the British dental association has just gone off line.
We also have the data commissioner and GDPR zealots waiting to pounce on the still twitching corpse of ransomware victims.
So will we just say sod it and go back to telephone calls and post?
But are organised criminals and increasingly much more sophisticated damaging attacks going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg?
Will hacking, ransomware and data theft just render the whole thing unworkable and unsustainable?
The growing threat and real prospect of having your identity, IP or data stolen or encrypted seems to be getting worse each day.
Big companies IT seems to be falling like ninepins at the moment, and I see the British dental association has just gone off line.
We also have the data commissioner and GDPR zealots waiting to pounce on the still twitching corpse of ransomware victims.
So will we just say sod it and go back to telephone calls and post?
Edited by peterperkins on Tuesday 4th August 20:34
There's definitely an arms race going on, but I don't think it will become unusable in the near future. There's a risk that the internet might become a series of walled gardens, but I doubt that would actually stop fraud/phishing/etc... Fundamentally, there will always be people willing to try to exploit others, steal from them. There are also almost always new ideas and tools to combat this, some of which will become more of an inconvenience (like mandated multi-factor authentication everywhere), some of which will do their job without fuss.
To look on the bright side, without people who are a
holes we wouldn't have or need tech security, so at least there's job creation going on!
As an aside:
Today I've had a card cancelled due to someone trying to use it fraudulently. For at least five months in lock-down its been pretty much only used with the sort of big organisations I'd have thought would know how to use encryption, via apparently TLS-encrypted browser sessions on an up-to-date browser. So that leaves my own desktop and phone as a security risk, but even then I'm not typing in my card details on a regular basis, if ever; these vendors tend to store it. Plus the virus/malware checks are clear, and I don't click links in garbage emails, or download and install crap.
It certainly means I am now less willing to buy online until I've figured out how my details got out there, which is probably not possible. And also left me wondering whether it is better to store a card with amazon, google, whoever - as I have been doing - or to type it in repeatedly for each purchase. With an earlier credit card, I used to have a virtual card number which was generated for each purchase - not sure why all banks don't offer that.
To look on the bright side, without people who are a
holes we wouldn't have or need tech security, so at least there's job creation going on!As an aside:
Today I've had a card cancelled due to someone trying to use it fraudulently. For at least five months in lock-down its been pretty much only used with the sort of big organisations I'd have thought would know how to use encryption, via apparently TLS-encrypted browser sessions on an up-to-date browser. So that leaves my own desktop and phone as a security risk, but even then I'm not typing in my card details on a regular basis, if ever; these vendors tend to store it. Plus the virus/malware checks are clear, and I don't click links in garbage emails, or download and install crap.
It certainly means I am now less willing to buy online until I've figured out how my details got out there, which is probably not possible. And also left me wondering whether it is better to store a card with amazon, google, whoever - as I have been doing - or to type it in repeatedly for each purchase. With an earlier credit card, I used to have a virtual card number which was generated for each purchase - not sure why all banks don't offer that.
Turn7 said:
I have a card with a £500 limit for online shopping for this very reason.....
Yeah, that is something I'll probably do, thanks! Ultimately, I'd rather have a throwaway virtual card number as I did with the defunct older account, but a low limit is probably a close second. My worry is that I don't know how this card was compromised, so it feels like it could just happen each time I get a new card, which is a pain regardless of credit limit. The fraudulent purchase was only for £400ish anyway, and was stopped by the bank before I even knew about it.Failing a virtual single-use card, there ought to be some form of per card-use or per vendor identifier or cert as part of the payment details. Then if those card details are used fraudulently, we know where from. Probably not worth it in practice, but it would make me feel happier.
OP - apologies for the side track!
No.
I would also challenge the assertion that there is a growing threat.
I use Gmail and receive no spam let alone anything nefarious into my Inbox. Compare this to five years ago when I would receive a constant stream of penis enlargement, Nigerian prince and other assorted dodgy emails into by Inbox daily.
If you stick to a safe ecosystem of sites, the chances of your data being stolen is minimal. Of course, there are always the odd BA-style hack, but what percentage of credit card transactions did that vulnerability make up compared to the transactions processed every year? A fraction of 1% I'd imagine.
In turn, banks have far more sophisticated fraud detection for Cardholder No Present transactions compared to even five years ago. Therefore, if your card details are exposed, not only are the chances of it successfully being used vastly reduced, the banks will refund any loses incurred.
I would also challenge the assertion that there is a growing threat.
I use Gmail and receive no spam let alone anything nefarious into my Inbox. Compare this to five years ago when I would receive a constant stream of penis enlargement, Nigerian prince and other assorted dodgy emails into by Inbox daily.
If you stick to a safe ecosystem of sites, the chances of your data being stolen is minimal. Of course, there are always the odd BA-style hack, but what percentage of credit card transactions did that vulnerability make up compared to the transactions processed every year? A fraction of 1% I'd imagine.
In turn, banks have far more sophisticated fraud detection for Cardholder No Present transactions compared to even five years ago. Therefore, if your card details are exposed, not only are the chances of it successfully being used vastly reduced, the banks will refund any loses incurred.
AJB88 said:
I agree with Gmail, I always laugh when I open the spam folder before deleting it.
On the very rare occasion I look in there I am always amazed at the reams of crud it contains. It is amazing that people still choose to use less than email clients which deliver this stuff to their inboxes.I had a client call me about a year ago as they had received one of the "video of you watching pr0n" emails. I didn't even know they existed until I looked in my spam folder and it was full of them.
dhutch said:
Turn7 said:
I CBA with masks unless desperate, so 80 percent of my shopping will now go online ...
Is wearing a mask that hard? Sounds dickish to me. I wears glasses and every single mask
I’ve worn mists them up, so not being able to see is a major ball ache .
Turn7 said:
dhutch said:
Turn7 said:
I CBA with masks unless desperate, so 80 percent of my shopping will now go online ...
Is wearing a mask that hard? Sounds dickish to me. I wears glasses and every single mask
I’ve worn mists them up, so not being able to see is a major ball ache .
Its a minor change to life, but a small price given what the world is going through.
Daniel
aizvara said:
As an aside:
Today I've had a card cancelled due to someone trying to use it fraudulently. For at least five months in lock-down its been pretty much only used with the sort of big organisations I'd have thought would know how to use encryption, via apparently TLS-encrypted browser sessions on an up-to-date browser. So that leaves my own desktop and phone as a security risk, but even then I'm not typing in my card details on a regular basis, if ever; these vendors tend to store it. Plus the virus/malware checks are clear, and I don't click links in garbage emails, or download and install crap.
Your card details could've been stolen a while back and only just recently used for fraud so I wouldn't be so quick to pin the blame on the companies you're used recently.Today I've had a card cancelled due to someone trying to use it fraudulently. For at least five months in lock-down its been pretty much only used with the sort of big organisations I'd have thought would know how to use encryption, via apparently TLS-encrypted browser sessions on an up-to-date browser. So that leaves my own desktop and phone as a security risk, but even then I'm not typing in my card details on a regular basis, if ever; these vendors tend to store it. Plus the virus/malware checks are clear, and I don't click links in garbage emails, or download and install crap.
Must admit I'm now using GooglePay, AmazonPay, etc. a lot more on websites to lessen how much my details are given out online.
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