Re: Safe to make credit card purchases over the web?

From: Barry Margolin (barmar_at_alum.mit.edu)
Date: 03/31/04

  • Next message: chris_at_nospam.com: "Re: Packet sniffing problems" 
    Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:53:21 -0500

    In article <c4dbfh$rt$1@208.20.133.66>,
     Bruce Barnett <spamhater91+U040330214633@grymoire.com> wrote:

    > Fred Ma <fma@doe.carleton.ca> writes:
    >
    > > Thanks, all, for confirming what I was suspecting.
    > > Namely, that the security risk is more in securing
    > > the remote database rather than eavesdropping the
    > > link. As well as the conclusion that web purchases
    > > are not much more risky than in-person.
    >
    >
    > If nothing else, it's more productive to steal ALL of the credit card
    > numbers than to steal one or two.....

    And then to steal a small bit of money from each account. No single
    customer is affected significantly enough that law enforcement will take
    it seriously (if the victim even bothers reporting it), but the
    perpetrator's total take can be enormous. It's kind of like the old,
    perhaps apocryphal, scheme of siphoning round-off errors to a side
    account. 

    -- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
  • Next message: chris_at_nospam.com: "Re: Packet sniffing problems"

    Relevant Pages

    • [Full-Disclosure] Gmail anomaly
      ... This is not a security risk but a weirdness worth noting. ... it as a bug to gmail but im not sure if its a bug on their part it may ... If you open two gmail accounts in two different firebird/fox browsers ... Or if you send an e-mail with the second account, ...
      (Full-Disclosure)
    • Re: How to prevent installation of software?
      ... Which according to MS is a SECURITY RISK - why otherwise are the guest ... Masses of stuff here as to WHY it's a security risk. ... I use the Guest account myself, on my computers. ... Then perhaps you could inform TechNet, the MS Baseline Security advisor, and all the other links I posted that they are wrong? ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
    • Re: Writing "cheques" revisited.
      ... after an absence and found that incorrect charges had been made *and* ... So I'd like to protect my account by ... unnecessary facility and an unnecessary security risk. ...
      (alt.usage.english)
    • Re: How to prevent installation of software?
      ... Which according to MS is a SECURITY RISK - why otherwise are the guest ... network shares otherwise if the Everybody group is used rather than ... I use the Guest account myself, ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
    • Re: How to prevent installation of software?
      ... Which according to MS is a SECURITY RISK - why otherwise are the guest ... Masses of stuff here as to WHY it's a security risk. ... I use the Guest account myself, ...
      (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)