The situations you are describing are different.

For one, the information that I have posted in my blog is data that I have chosen to share to the public. This is different from data that I entered in an internet cafe that I assume is kept private.

And yes the company I work for has my bank account details, but only the account number. Not my PIN. Not the address listed in my bank account. Not my last 5 transactions. Not my bank balance. Just my name and account number so they can credit the funds. Again, this is something that I had provided and the other information is protected by the bank.

And yes they have my resume/transcript but again this is information that I have chosen to reveal.

My point exactly: the infomration I had divulged was information I HAD CHOSEN to divulge to the public.

And yes I have an IT administrator, but he doesn’t know my password because our passwords are stored encrypted in the system and we change our passwords upon issuance and every 30 days.

with all your paranoia mon, i think its just safe to assume that you dont have a friendster account, or that you dont work for a company who has an HRD (they have your resume, your transcript, your bank account) and an IT Administrator (they have your password).. and if youre afraid that someone would assemble enough information to masquerade as you, well you shouldnt be blogging and posting all of your thoughts in the net.. i dnt have to be hacker to know that you are an IT executive and a graduate from ateneo; all i have to do is read your blog..

And when I say the U.S. is clueless, I refer to the ordinary user. Not the corporates. U.S. financial institutions are notorious for internet security.

I am no hacker, but I am aware of hacker techniques. Some of them are very simple and could be prevented by simple procedures. The fact is, people are lazy and hackers take advantage of it.

sorry moe, theyre not.. go to a legit e-commerce site, youll see verisign, trust-e sign, better business beauro (bbb) sign, and all other security sign spin offs to protect their customers privacy and information.. those same internet securities are what our online banking like epci, citibank ph, bpi and the like are using to provide pinoy users the same security when you use their services.. try reading an ecommerce site policy, youll read somewhere there that they are recording your ip address.. if you use someone elses fnancial information in a different geographical point, theyll let you know right away.. in this case, if you use someone elses financial information and youre location is the same as the one who is registered and it just so happen youre in the phil, well, i guess the question is, how much (or how little) money can you get out of it..?

you blog mon right..? why not pose as a hacker and hack the system and if you get successful, write an expos`e about it, like how lame internet securites online bank is using these days.. think of the publicity.. i would have done it myself but im too busy..

IMHO, I don’t think Americans are smarter than us when it comes to internet security. I think they are just as clueless as we are. I know of many companies all over the world that still write down their passwords on post-its. Or who fall for the phishing scams.

noemi,

I find it reprehensible that netopia does not allow us to clear out the cache.