On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 18:26:52 -0500 John Ioannidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Citibank send me periodic reminders to switch to an electronic-only > statement so that I am "better protected against identity theft". > The advice may actually be correct, though of course they have a major financial incentive to persuade you to adopt the scheme even if it isn't. Anyway -- we're so focused in this group on the Internet that we sometimes forget about physical world attacks. Theft of financial data (and financial objects, such as checks and credit cards) from physical mailboxes (or garbage cans) is quite commonplace, and is -- according to some -- a more significant vector for identity theft than Internet fun and games. The Wall Street Journal advised people to use electronic statements for just that reason (see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116830855255470919-search.html?KEYWORDS=%22identity+theft%22&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month); also note the list at http://www.identitytheftassistance.org/How_Criminals_Steal.html --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]