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How I Stole Someone’s Identity

August 21, 2008
by Herbert H. Thompson
Contributing Writer, Scientific American

Herbert H. Thompson

As a professor, a software developer and an author I’ve spent a career in software security. I decided to conduct an experiment to see how vulnerable people’s accounts are to mining the Web for information. I asked some of my acquaintances, people I know only casually, if, with their permission and under their supervision, I could break into their online banking accounts. After a few uncomfortable pauses, some agreed. The goal was simple: Get into their online banking account by using information about them, their hobbies, their families and their lives freely available online.

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