Be Very Careful?

Cryptographers Warned against Logging in

One of the best American cryptographers has recently warned that one’s broadband connection might be grassing them up to anyone having access to a database.

According to Bruce Schneier, the author of the book “Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World”, the rapid development of the security industry allows anyone to work out what you are doing without having to directly tap your phone.

Bruce Schneier, when writing for CNN, has cited the cases where advanced computer users could be identified because the FBI managed to correlate data from various sources and make conclusions.

The case was that of Paula Broadwell, who appeared embroiled in an affair scandal with the former CIA director David Petraeus. Paula was cautious enough to never log in to her anonymous e-mail service from her home network, but it didn’t save her. Although she only used public networks like that in hotels and cafes when she e-mailed him, the FBI managed to correlate hotel registration information from various hotels and found the common name.

Bruce Schneier explains that everything we do now involves online data which is saved and can easily be correlated. In fact, there are huge data companies out there, making money by building up intimate profiles of citizens’ lives from many different places. In other words, the worldwide web turned into a surveillance tool which is hard to avoid. According to experts, no measures used to prevent this, including searching from mobiles rather than computers or using an alias on Facebook, can bring any results. The matter is that there are just too many ways to be tracked on the Internet to be able to effectively cover your tracks.