h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was just reading an article in New Scientist the other day about identity fraud, and they mentioned how some people virtually invite it to happen to them.

For example, the article said, "just type 'passport photo' into the images section of Google and you will say tens of thousands of pictures.."

People have actually scanned their passports into websites I did it and it's true (again). Truly astounding- mugshots with peoples personal details visible for anyone in the world to see!!

Me, i'm getting more and more paranoid about this kind of thing. Just bought me a shredder, and i recently downloaded a firewall (thanks to a thread on here). I know someone who had their bank account plundered due to (presumably)identity fraud. It is apparentaly the most common type of crime now. More common than tax evasion, murder, rape, etc, etc

Amazing. Tried the passport photo into google thing and was dumbfounded. Not only passports but ID cards, the lot. I never knew what a US Passport looked like having never seen one before. I do now with all the time in the world to study the detail.

Identity fraud is one of the easiest things to do. A quick rummage in most people rubbish bins will usually produce enough information to impersonate them. Except mine, I have a shredder and anything that might be remotely interesting goes through it.

It is not only business with commercial secrets to protect that need a shredder - everyone needs one.

Donald

I've been thinking about getting a shredder - mainly for the security angle - but also to recycle stuff for my compost heap.

What type of shredder would you recommend - I got totally confused by the jargon on the boxes and came home without one.

the serious fraud office / customs in heatrow, london is using my passport is example with my permision. I was oe first with newly issued pasport.

I do not know if still use it!

There are two types of shredder you will come across suitable for home use. A cross cut or a straight cut. The straight cut is the cheaper as it just cuts the paper into strips. The cross cut is a little more expensive but also cuts across the strips making smaller bits of paper.

A patient thief could get the strip from a cross cut shredder and put them together like a jig saw puzzle to read the original contents. The same can be done with a cross cut but would be considerably harder and probably take more time than it is worth.

A cross cut would probably break down quicker in a compost heap as well.

Throughput is of little consideration for the home user as you will probably only be shredding a few pages at a time. Shredders have a maximum number of sheets they can shred in one go. Usually around a dozen 80gm sheets for home use. Commercial shredders take far more and can get through the telephone directory in a matter of seconds.

A decent cross cut shredder can be bought for under £50. A search of google will give you loads of choices.

Donald

Mine cost only £29, but the strips are quite wide, and it wouldn't be that time consuming to put them together again

On the other hand, i am gambling that the would-be theif would find plenty of unshredded paper to keep him/her busy, and leave my strips alone. I think that's the general idea anyway, not to make it impossible to read the information, just to make it inconvienient enough for the person to look elsewhere (a bit like locking your car- the thief will go to the unlocked vehicles before yours).

>> and it wouldn't be that time consuming to put them together again <<

That's the principal of all security. Time over benefit. Not a lot of benefit spending a few hours to discover somebodies credit card number when there are easier ways of doing it.

However, if you were working in some Top Secret Government department, the time taken to put things back together would be worth it, even if to a week to assemble a single page. Consequently top of the range shredders shred paper into small lumps so that it is virtually impossible to put them back together again. In really sensitive offices, the shredded paper is then burnt in an incinerator reserved for the purpose.

Stuart

Wasn't there once some hostage taking in an embassy, where the terrorists sat down and started to tape together all the shredded top secret documents they had?

I was just taking money out of an ATM yesterday. There was a big pile of receipts laying underneath it. You probably could have picked them up and bought loads of stuff over the internet.