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What's happening in the federal IT community
By Tuesday, April 8, 2008 | 6:14 PM
Many of us in the information technology world have worked hard to achieve the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. We are now much freer to transact business in an un-tethered fashion, enabling us to contribute more and more of our otherwise non-productive personal time to more gainful activities.
However, nagging and unintended consequences that threaten further progress are dogging us. We confront headlines about the proliferation of our most personal information throughout cyberspace. Our ages, physical characteristics (at least the ones we record), yearbook pictures, traffic violations, credit histories, failed relationships all seem to be readily available, and subject to violation by a growing number of predators, some benign, others felonious. Cyber outlaws are capturing our identities, compromising our finances, and promulgating false information about us.
These realities threaten the streamlined business processes, fully enabled by technology, that our largest institutions in government, banking, health, insurance have realized. We, the consumers and beneficiaries face the possibility of returning to local shopping options, and having to once again stand in a bank teller’s line to make a deposit.
I realize there is a burgeoning industry lining up to secure cyberspace and return the confidence of the consumer in the ability of business and government to secure us again. I propose, however, that there is an opportunity to address this from the endpoints; that is, by you and me. Do we have the stomach as individuals to take this issue on, rather than trusting that it will be provided to us? What options are there?
So, bloggers, can you contribute some requirements to the “at large” deliverers of solutions? Simple solutions that the individual could buy, benefit from, adapt or invent? How about a couple here:
1. A text message/email to us whenever a financial transaction hits an alert criteria I negotiate with my bank/credit card, etc.
2. Biometrically enabled devices that I possess, perhaps linked to radio frequency capability to support credential related financial transactions. Cell phone? Key fobs? Credentials themselves?
Anything I am missing? Too naïve here, or is there a new market?
Comments
Oh, there's a market all right -- an expensive one. How much will the bank charge to text you and how much will your wireless company charge to deliver it to you and also for the time you spend reading it? And radio frequency technology is so woefully lacking in security measures that it's laughable to consider it in this context.
Back when we stood in line to deposit our money in a bank, how much identity theft was there? The very term was unknown. And yet we did not pay extra for this level of security, it was simply expected. Just like everything else that used to be free or cheap but is now ruining us economically (television, water, gas, food, education), this new market requires us to pay through the nose for a level of security that we should have the right to expect for free. In the meantime, banks are paying next to no interest on our savings and investments while charging us inexcusable rates on our credit.
The answer? Well, diverting the billions and billions and billions of dollars from the Iraq War to this security issue sure wouldn't hurt. As you can tell, I'm tired of my life getting harder while warmongers get richer. We've got it all back-asswards.
Martha | Thursday, April 24, 2008 | 4:06 PMthanks for responses. It occurs to me there is a potential new business here. How about "The Cone Of Silence" LLC.
A tailored and personal solution to taking a customer "off line" as they feel they need. Electronic interference devices to defeat video cams??? sophisticated blocking for cyber snoops? filters for call records, etc?
What is possible here if we want to cloak ourselves on a peronal level?
scott hastings | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 | 9:11 AMIn this age of unprecedented access to information, I postulate that there is also so much disinformation out there. I recognize that there IS identity theft, that it is real, and that it is damaging. However, I question as to whether or not it is so pervasive that we cannot deal with it rather than spending untold amounts of time and money trying to prevent it. If something is epidemic, that is one thing; but the media's overuse of hyperbole causes us to think that there is an epidemic when in fact we have localized, controllable outbreaks.
I've left my front door unlocked for most of my adult life. Life is only a problem when you run from the sky that is falling.
The Sky is Falling | Thursday, April 10, 2008 | 8:19 AMYour thought's are well taken; however, I for one would like to see more in the area of traps set for the outlaws. Something on the line of when a preditor hacks into a substructure there is a automatic alarm sounded along with a worm sent to the hacker that would enable us to track their real identity. Why can't we, do unto them as they do unto us?
Cliff | Wednesday, April 9, 2008 | 12:49 PMNothing is secure in todays electronic age. Once we acknowledge this then we can take the next step and stay aware of how our information is used. I recommend LIFELOCK or some other service to monitor your information. Yes is is $10 a month but it is the cost of doing electronic information and money transactions. Get used to it and stay informed and updated by a third party whose job it is to protect your information.
Mike | Wednesday, April 9, 2008 | 8:29 AMYour two ideas, while really good, are technical solutions to systemic problems that themselves have non-technical aspects which technology alone cannot solve. One example is in how banks today approach the problem of forged checks. Undoubtedly they already have the capability, today, to check every check and simply prevent forgeries from being honored; or, failing that, to send an alert in the way you suggest in #1. But that requires a dramatic, systemic increase in operating costs because it means having each transaction looked at individually. Therefore, the banks have opted to simply absorb the much smaller loss of occasional forgeries -- they refund the victim customer's money, close the affected account and open a new one -- and to continue not addressing the underlying issue. Until this lesser-evil approach is overcome somehow -- and I, for one, cannot imagine what we consumers can do to make it uneconomical for them -- many valid technical solutions will be slow in implementation.
Marie | Wednesday, April 9, 2008 | 8:16 AM