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Jul 04, 2006

Comments

1.

While compiling my monthly newsletter, I came across a very interesting commentary on South Korea's ID system. Apparently the system is so badly compromised that not only are 30% of the known false IDs acquired from South Korea's own Dept of Commerce sites, but in addition opposition party members have been able to acquire the IDs and track the supposed surfing habits of the President and Prime Minster themselves!!!

Needless to say, someone else beat them to it, and has been happily using the IDs of these two men to access all sorts of porn sites, subscribe to MMORPGs (probably for gold farming), etc., etc.

A very amusing article hitting just the tip of this iceberg was reported by Reuters a few days ago. Personally, I just enjoyed the irony:

ID theft strikes South Korean leaders
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/28/news/roh.php

2.

Greg>On the day that Yanks celebrate our independence from England

Weren't we the UK by then?

Richard

3.

I think you were "Great Britain" by then -- I think you became the UK per se around the end of the 18th century. But I'll defer to anyone who, unlike me, got a B or better in high school history.

If you Google it, the popular vote seems to be that we declared independence "from England." See, e.g.
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/holidays/july4/bloom.htm

Far be it from me to question the wisdom of the mobs. ;-)

4.

There are a couple of different cases going on here. First, there was a huge identity theft ring whose purpose (at least partially) was to target Lineage for gold farmers.

See and here.

Basicaly, the identities were stolen to create free Lineage accounts (I speculated that these were mule accounts for real gold farmers as the accounts were only valid for a short period of time).

This occurred in late 2005 and was revealed earlier this year.

Then, there was a case where an unprotected server allowed the download of a bunch of folks user name / passwords. Back in late April. This was the one with the $500 fines.

One could note with some humor, unless you work for NCSoft, is that the company spends about $10 Million per year for security, so the bad guys are ahead if this group alone was bringing in $15 Million.

And they have "150 game masters monitoring for bots around the clock."

A lot of web sites in Korea have been using their national ID (like a US Social Security Number) for authentication. The government is stepping in to move away from this due to this widespread fraud problem. Which, also interestingly, is the opposite of what China is doing - moving to using their national ID for authentication.

5.

Steven -- thanks a bunch -- will update the OP.

6.

Greg -- Re England, the mob ain't so smart. You're right about Great Britain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain) -- as a Scot I have to declare an interest in England being extended to GB (small matter of an Act of Union in 1707), otherwise it's a form of historical identity-theft -- esp. as there were Scots in both Patriot & Loyalist forces...

7.

Good Lord, I don't want to commit identity theft against the Scots -- you'll all go Braveheart on me -- and I'm an Andy Stewart fan besides.

I guess I really underestimated the continuing zeal for accuracy about who we all became independent from a couple centuries ago -- here in the U.S., to be perfectly honest, we never mention you all -- we just wave a lot of flags and shoot off fireworks. ;-)

Anyway -- I fixed it, I fixed it...

8.

That was me, and let me further add that I'm actually kind of in love with Scotland -- always trying to figure out a way to justify trips there. And, in addition to being an Andy Stewart fan, I think I've memorized every episode of Monarch of the Glen. So yes, Great Britain it is.

9.

"Which, also interestingly, is the opposite of what China is doing - moving to using their national ID for authentication."

But Chinese SSNs are like... 20+ digits. Thats security in itself!

10.

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11.

i didnt know the chinese had social security.

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