| In this incident, someone inserted some code in some phone switches to abuse the built-in wiretap facilities to eavesdrop on calls beginning during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens – the eavesdropping was not discovered until 2005-01-24. Over 100 people’s lines were monitored, up to and including the Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis. |
The culprit of the Greek eavesdropping disaster has not been found so far. Nonetheless, there is plenty of fodder for speculation, including
a) mysteriously missing records,
b) suspicious suicide, and, as
c) an intriguing technological mystery.
And yes, many in the security and privacy community have been warning about so-called ‘lawful interception’ interfaces built in to network infrastructure become inviting targets for abuse.
Previously we posted:
- # 1 – Greek mobile phone scandal – what does it tell us?
- # 2 – Greek mobile phone scandal – privacy with Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google
Below we list seven trends that seem to jeopardize people’s chances to protect their privacy:
| Five sins threatening one’s privacy while making life ever more transparent | ||
| Five ‘behavioral‘ sins threatening one’s privacy while making life ever more transparent | ||
| 1 | Voyeurism | visiting You Tube to find the best bloopers there are – exposing personal things about people’s lifes and preferences |
| 2 | Vanity | searching the net to see what can be found about oneself – the more the better – one minute of fame… |
| 3 | Self-promotion | spreading your achievements across the web your CV should make your closest friend gag but not vomit — underselling does you no favors anymore |
| 4 | Free it must be | we all want great things for free – giving away information (personal data, etc.) to a marketer, in return for betting 20 free SMS each month is the ‘right’ thing to do |
| 5 | Short-term focus | living today while not worrying about tomorrow is our motto |
| Three ‘techno-regulatory‘ sins threatening one’s privacy while making life ever more transparent | ||
| 6 | ‘lawful interception’ interfaces | that raise the question if the capability can be controlled so that only authorized parties can employ it – the # 1 Greek scandal shows it can fail when insiders do the job – so can outsiders. |
| 7 | combining technical means with regulatory developments | by using face recognition software or ‘talking’ CCTV cameras if regulation permits to ‘safeguard’ the public against hooligans, vandalism, terrorism, etc. |
| 8 | Failure to protect personal data adequately | ever greater e-government or e-commerce efforts can mean that your city council or city government transactions for tax, parking fines, and rent payments could be stolen from a server as happened with the Newcastle Council – UK – with a credit card file leak on Thursday July 19, 2007 |
At this stage we could ask if privacy is a last century concept or do we need to adjust? Our lifes are becoming ever more transparent and we are all committing at least one or two of the above five behavioral sins. Moreover, we use technology that enables eavesdropping and tracking our movements such as mobile phones. Moreover, e-mail and You Tube as well as Google have combined making information about us ever more accessible for an ever longer time frame.
User generated content or what has become known as Web 2.0 helps to make our lifes accessible. In fact, what we are doing as well as what we have done from primary school all the way to retirement is now accessible to anybody who wishes to find out. For instance, your school blog shows the stories you wrote in fifth or sixth grade. These can be found lateron during one’s life and maybe make us laught or cause embarrassement unless the school blog used pseudonyms to protect pupils’ privacy.
It seems that people are discovering the joys of living their life in public. Unfortunately, it is unclear if things one did a few years back one will still be proud of when talking to one’s offspring as a parent or trying to find employment as a manager.
The Greek mobile phone scandal is another example how users have to come to their own personal accomodations with these new technologies and what they mean regarding privacy. Living in a transparent fish bowl is not always fun and if we decide to opt out of the transparent digital community that is taking shape we must start now and not tomorrow.
Setting limits to what the world may know about our lifes, work activities and hobbies is difficult. Nonetheless, being cautious is a smart strategy in today’s hypertransparent world if we want to gain more control over our online AND OFFLINE existence.
OTHER RELEVANT STORIES
- CyTRAP Labs – guide – the seven deadly sins of security metrics
- The seven deadly sins of archiving digital information
- The seven deadly sins of web application security became the top ten
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