How Much Is Your Online Identity Worth?

itwbennett writes "Answer a few questions about your personal Internet use, and a new tool from Symantec will calculate your net worth on the black market. You'll get three results: how much your online assets are worth, how much your online identity would sell for on the black market, and your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft. The tool is intended to raise consumer awareness about cybercrime, said Marian Merritt, Internet security advocate for Symantec. It's unlikely the average consumer would read an Internet Security Threat Report, she added, but a simply illustrated example might get the same point across. 'It's shocking how little value criminals place on your credit card,' she said."

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WTF are those buttons...

[robot256]

It was humorous up until the last page, where it said, "Your entire digital life could go up for auction for as little as $21.39" and then had two big buttons, ALLOW and DENY. Are they ASKING if you want to auction your identity on the black market? And who in their right mind would click on either one of them? Very suspicious, but obviously just an advertisement for Symantec's crappy products. Long live ES-ET for actual bloat-free protection.

Re:Worth

[mcgrew]

I'm still waiting for TFA to load, but TFS doesn't sound much like the headline.

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Ok, it loaded. It doesn't say much more than TFS. But I think its "online identity" thing is misleading; they're not talking about "mcgrew", they're talking about "McGrew"; in other words, your OFFLINE identity. After all, you don't log into your bank with a pseudonym.

I couldn't get the risk assessment tool to load at all. Since I don't do any business on the internet (I even used a paper check mailed to Canada for my domain when I had a web site) I don't think I'm at much risk at all. I'm more at risk of somebody going through my trash.

Can I use this to earn money?

[petes_PoV]

By making up online personas and then selling them? Norton reckoned my online worth was $32 - just by clicking on my age range and taking all the other default values. That's about $32 for 30 seconds work. I could do that for a living. It's just a pity that Norton haven't taken this to it's logical conclusion and offered to join up people with onlibe identities and the (other) people who would pay for them.

Of course, if they did, they'd find that:

* there was almost no-one willing to pay for this

* they would pay nothing like the Norton valuation

and therefore expose the complete and utter BULL behind this mind-numbingly DUMB idea. I'd even be happy for Norton to take a 10% finders fee - I'd still make a pile.

Re:Slashvertising at its best.

[InlawBiker]

I'm beginning to wonder if Slashdot shouldn't tag stories as "paid placements." This is a ridiculously obvious marketing piece.

Re:Is it $0.43 or $100?

[rhsanborn]

It means the criminal would expect to get about $100.00 out of your identity, but they won't pay $100.00 to try and get that value. They have a significant risk, including many identities that just don't work out, and the risk of getting caught. So, they'll only buy the opportunity to use that identity for $0.43.

Re:How much? They'll tell you how much.

[commodore64_love]

This was just a way to sell their software. When I said I had a "security suite" to protect my accounts they rated me as "low risk" but when I changed the answer to "no security" than they rated me high. I'm surprised they didn't have an instant popup to sell me their program.

This is just like the insurance companies who make it sound you'll be run-over by a car or hit by a falling ladder, as soon as you step outside your home. Exaggerating a person's risk is a scam to get your money. That's all it is. "Oh yeah you need to buy this, else you will be SCREWED!!! Hahaha." "OMG I'll take it!" "A wise decision madam."

Ch-ching.

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FUD

[gavron]

Telling me how much I'm worth on the black market of identity theft begs the question of whether HOW SECURE AM I FROM IDENTITY THEFT and does nothing more than add FUD to the identity theft discussion.

If you don't want your identity stolen, the right way to do that is to PREVENT YOUR IDENTITY FROM BEING STOLEN, not buy more software that may or may not patch more holes in the software you already have.

Social networking sites aren't the problem. People who freely give out confidential information are the problem.
Your computer isn't the problem. How you use it to make it easy for others to take your confidential information is the problem.

Norton can't fix all the malware problems, and they can only do so AFTER they see the malware (either in concept or in the wild). Too often that's many many days after the problem is already too late. Their suggestions to use firewalls do nothing to prevent spyware installed through any number of known windows/adobe/vendor-of-the-day-hole from stealing your data in real time and delivering it where it will be used immediately to drain your accounts.

Use linux. Use FireFox. Use anonymizers. Don't store passwords anywhere other than your head.
Don't use Windows. Don't use Internet Explorer or Outlook. Don't keep all your passwords in the browser.

Here's an excellent example of a "strong password checker" that is in fact TERRIBLE: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx [microsoft.com]
Hint: try aaaaaa$A There are two problems with this "strong password checker". The first is it assumes a password CANNOT be strong unless it has elements of letters, numbers, and either special characters or uppercase letters. The second is it assumes that at 8 characters a password containing members of those sets is strong, and that at 14 characters it is "the best". This implies that aaaaaaaaaaaa$A is a stronger password than "You'llneverguessmypassphrasebutI'llrememberit!"

Norton needs FUD so they can sell more of their products.

We as /. readers don't like FUD. Not from SCO, not from MS, ...and not from Norton.

Stop the FUD when you see it.

E