Identity Security

I’m sure that there are many of you out there who don’t read Robert X. Cringely. And that’s okay. I’m equally sure that he isn’t for everyone. Often, his ramblings tend to lean towards technology in one way or another. Many instances are implementations of technology in decidedly non-technological arenas. Many other instances are just about the tech.

Nonetheless, he’s had an interesting series of articles lately. About a month ago (on 9/11, in case you’re fond of tracking those things), the first of the articles appeared, about identitiy theft. Specifically, some of Bob’s mail was stolen, when it was supposed to be on hold at the Post Office. This raised all sorts of questions about responsibility and actually getting the Post Office to investigate things, but that’s not where I’m going.

Two weeks ago, another article on identify theft went into some more detail on why it’s likely that this crime will continue to get worse. Even if you don’t think you have much to worry about – even if you actually don’t have much to worry about – these two articles make for some interesting reading. If you’re of the criminal mind, then perhaps they will make for some useful career tips. If you’re just a regular person who wants to try and avoid that group, it will make for some interesting tips on possibly making yourself more secure from identity theft.

Today, Bob published another article (okay, it was actually published yesterday). While not so much a direct continuation of the prior articles, this definitely continued the thought process, discussing how we can make things more secure in our dealings with one another. Very interesting how the illustration was drawn from a tribal society where everyone knew each other to today’s sprawling communities, and how we may need to restore some sort of tribal effect on top of that in order to get back to the level of security present when everyone else really did know your name.


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