At 10:58 PM -0500 10/14/03, Bruce Schneier wrote: > The Future of Surveillance > > > >At a gas station in Coquitlam, British Columbia, two employees >installed a camera in the ceiling in front of an ATM machine. They >recorded thousands of people as they typed in their PIN >numbers. Combined with a false front on the ATM that recorded account >numbers from the cards, the pair was able to steal millions before they >were caught. > >In at least 14 Kinko's copy shops in New York City, Juju Jiang >installed keystroke loggers on the rentable computers. For over a year >he eavesdropped on people, capturing more than 450 user names and >passwords, and using them to access and open bank accounts online. > >A lot has been written about the dangers of increased government >surveillance, but we also need to be aware of the potential for more >pedestrian forms of surveillance. A combination of forces -- the >miniaturization of surveillance technologies, the falling price of >digital storage, the increased power of computer programs to sort >through all of this data -- means that surveillance abilities that used >to be limited to governments are now, or soon will be, in the hands of >everyone. > >Some uses of surveillance are benign. Fine restaurants sometimes have >cameras in their dining rooms so the chef can watch diners as they eat >their creations. Telephone help desks sometimes record customer >conversations in order to help train their employees. > >Other uses are less benign. Some employers monitor the computer use of >their employees, including use of company machines on personal time. A >company is selling an e-mail greeting card that serriptiously installs >spyware on the recipient's computer. Some libraries keep records of >what books people check out, and Amazon keeps records of what books >people browse on their website. > >And, as we've seen, some uses are criminal. > >This trend will continue in the years ahead, because technology will >continue to improve. Cameras will become even smaller and more >inconspicuous. Imaging technology will be able to pick up even smaller >details, and will be increasingly able to "see" through walls and other >barriers. And computers will be able to process this information >better. Today, cameras are just mindlessly watching and recording, but >eventually sensors will be able to identify people. Photo IDs are just >temporary; eventually no one will have to ask you for an ID because >they'll already know who you are. Walk into a store, and you'll be >identified. Sit down at a computer, and you'll be identified. I don't >know if the technology will be face recognition, DNA sniffing, or >something else entirely. I don't know if this future is ten or twenty >years out -- but eventually it will work often enough and be cheap >enough for mass-market use. (Remember, in marketing, even a technology >with a high error rate can be good enough.) > >The upshot of this is that you should consider the possibility, albeit >remote, that you are being observed whenever you're out in >public. Assume that all public Internet terminals are being >eavesdropped on; either don't use them or don't care. Assume that >cameras are watching and recording you as you walk down the >street. (In some cities, they probably are.) Assume that surveillance >technologies that were science fiction ten years ago are now mass-market. > >This loss of privacy is an important change to society. It means that >we will leave an even wider audit trail through our lives than we do >now. And it's not only a matter of making sure this audit trail is >accessed only by "legitimate" parties: an employer, the government, >etc. Once data is collected, it can be compiled, cross-indexed, and >sold; it can be used for all sorts of purposes. (In the U.S., data >about you is not owned by you. It is owned by the person or company >that collected it.) It can be accessed both legitimately and >illegitimately. And it can persist for your entire life. David Brin >got a lot of things wrong in his book The Transparent Society. But >this part he got right. > > >Kinko's story: ><http://www.computercops.us/article2568.html> ><http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6447> > >ATM fraud story: ><http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030812.gtatmm0812/ >BNStory/Technology> ><http://canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=f07cac50-62c7-46d8-892a-b66dfa2f >1d88> > >Net spying: ><http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/technology/10SPY.html> ><http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-5083874.html>
-- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
