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Reminds me of a DefCon speaker that talked about exploiting a bunch of websites to order death and birth certificates. Really eye opening, and potentially devas
by jastanton 10y ago
Reminds me of a DefCon speaker that talked about exploiting a bunch of websites to order death and birth certificates. Really eye opening, and potentially devastating if it's done to you.
Edit: https://youtu.be/9FdHq3WfJgs https://youtu.be/9FdHq3WfJgs
- swalsh 10y agoI haven't watched it yet, but most defcon social engineering talks take advantage of this innate thing in human nature that just assumes you're authentic. Probably because it's infinitesimally rare that someone is trying to run a con. Can be quite sobering, but at the same time, it's nice to know most people try to help others (even at the haste of security).
- TheDong 10y agoWell, you should have watched it first because your comment isn't relevant. The talk is about exploiting terrible digital security, not social engineering.
- lostlogin 10y agoA few of that here in New Zealand. People pick a grave of someone who would have been their age (ideally a baby as they won't have many documents associated with them). Get a birth certificate and use that to get more documenta. A member of parliament did it once. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Garrett_(politician) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Garrett_(politician)
- seanwilson 10y agoI've always been curious what happens if your records get hacked or accidentally lost/changed. How do you allow people to correct problems here without leaving it open to exploits? I'm guessing you're asked to prove who you are with data from lots of different departments (e.g. employers, passport office, bank)?
- rwmj 10y agoSorry to link to vice.com, but this article about the US "dead people database" was quite interesting. The database (predictably) gets things wrong occasionally because people mistype an SSN or whatever, and when that happens to you it seems to be very difficult to fix it: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/how-living-people-are-wrongfully-pronounced-dead http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/how-living-people-are-wrongfu...
- tastythrowaway2 10y agowhat's wrong with linking vice as a source?
- rwmj 10y agoWell I was reading it, so I suppose I don't think it's that bad :-( However it is generally lightweight "yoof" nonsense.
- CPLX 10y agoVice is arguably the most ambitious and credible investigatory broadcast news organization on the planet these days, save perhaps the BBC.
- ihsw 10y agoIt also opens itself up to peddling tripe for talentless hacks that have no business reporting the news much less writing tacky blog posts. Some of Vice is ambitious and credible, I was a huge fan of their Ukrainian Conflict investigative coverage and watched it regularly, but like I said Vice does peddle tripe.