File Sharing Opens Users to Identity Theft
Wed Nov 7, 2007 5:09PM EST
See Comments (138)
Surprise! When you share files on your computer with the teeming masses on the Internet, you might be sharing more than just music and video files. Numerous peer-to-peer users are learning, the hard way, that file sharing is a quick and easy way to open yourself up to identity theft.
The story isn't at all new, but the Wall Street Journal is bringing it into better focus, with specific examples and an indication that this trend is exploding. One man pleaded guilty last week to stealing tax forms, credit reports, and loan applications from more than 50 people, through the file-sharing program LimeWire. He then used the info to open credit accounts in those people's names, the usual form that identity theft takes. In September, Citigroup lost more than 5,000 Social Security numbers because one of its employees was using LimeWire and shared the wrong network. Ditto for Pfizer in June, which lost 17,000 employee records the same way.
Finding this stuff online isn't hard. Search any P2P network for hot-button words like "taxes," "resume," or "loan," and you'll come across personal information in seconds. It's also easy to misconfigure your computer to inadvertently share this information. One or two clicks is normally all it takes to share the entire contents of your hard drive instead of a specific directory intended for sharing. And no, all the security software in the world won't help you if you make a mistake like this.
What should you do? For starters, don't use P2P at all if you don't know what you're getting into. As the WSJ notes, using a computer dedicated solely to file sharing is a potentially good solution; just keep anything you don't want shared off the PC altogether. (It also goes without saying that you shouldn't share copyrighted material, either, but that's a lecture for another day.) Some networks are safer than others; certain P2P apps, like BearShare, no longer allow DOC or PDF files to be shared at all. On the other hand, in my experience, LimeWire is the network most likely to turn up private information.
The full story also has information on corporate software that can help protect you by monitoring what you're sharing, called Tiversa. Check out the link below for more details.
Comments on File Sharing Opens Users to Identity Theft
Post a Comment
Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
-
2 Posted by bannedfromteal on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:02PM EDT Report Abuse
Just a another reason not to give info,files, life stories etc. so loosely.When will ever learn.
-
3 Posted by geraldsalata on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:08PM EDT Report Abuse
I can't understand why the mentality level of computer users is so low.Even dropouts should know better than to file share...........No
-
4 Posted by pcofmind1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:04PM EDT Report Abuse
I've used Morpheus in the past, and their file-sharing always defaulted to sharing just the "Morpheus Shared" folder, set within the My Documents folder in Windows XP. Now, having said that, the only time my year-old, fully-loaded, super-fast HP desktop has had virus/spyware issues (fortunately minor), it has been sometime after partying on Morpheus. Needless to say, I'm done with the P2P experience that all started with a semi-addiction to the original Napster.
-
5 Posted by somebodys_here on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
That's why Bit Torrent is better. You can only share what you have the metadata (in the way of a .torrent file) for. I never trusted Lime Wire anyway... seemed too dangerous.
-
6 Posted by mattm911 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:11PM EDT Report Abuse
LimeWire is for losers
-
7 Posted by john_chinchen on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse
I am a computer tech, and have come across more than one hard drive with a shared root, along with Limewire. People just don't understand the dangers. You would think in this day and age there would be a greater level of awareness, and there may be, but there is also a large population of people that don't know how to protect themselves.
-
8 Posted by topdogrd2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:17PM EDT Report Abuse
Bearshare has spyware in it.
-
9 Posted by joeyoungfitz on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:38PM EDT Report Abuse
Don't share one line, or should say steal on line. Over 95% of content on shared sights are copyrighted.
-
10 Posted by alacalufe100 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:49PM EDT Report Abuse
How to know which P2P was the one used? All of them have the problem? here we got the news but not the remedy.
1 Posted by rogueist on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:49PM EDT Report Abuse
Depends on how you configure the programs. By default, they share everything on your computer with everyone else. Spending 5 minutes to turn off the sharing on your end, and setting the default share folder to one with nothing in it helps tons.