Interesting 'security' article on BBC News!

[L00b 441]

Say, if IP addresses are being logged by a website...

 

For the same person who keeps coming back to this website, using the same internet connection, how likely is his IP to change, per visit?

Per visit (i.e. during a same visit, over a period of minutes or maybe an hour or so), most unlikely...unless the person spoofs their IP (uncommon) at a very high cycle (even more uncommon). EDIT or unless (per the below point) the ISP happens to update that person's dynamic IP during the visit (i.e. temporal coincidence...could happen I suppose).

 

Over a longer period of time, then I'd say it depends how frequently that person's ISP cycles its dynamic IPs (hourly/daily/weekly/etc.).

Also, how likely is it he will share the same IP address as another person? (on a different internet connection).

Most unlikely (much more so than an IP changing at a rapid rate per the above), if not impossible.

 

All of the above, unless some hacking/virus/trojan/etc. shenanigans are involved of course.

Edited January 30, 2013 by L00b

[Resident 1,185]

Complain to the BBC. Mark Ward has written several bad articles containing inaccuracies and false statements.

 

In another article his "expert" is from Scan Computers, commonly referred to by my enthusiasts as SCAM computer which says it all really.

 

It's lazy journalism hoping on sensationalism rather than facts.

[Ghozer 112]

That article is a load of BS imho...

 

the MAC address of a computer (or any device for that matter)

A) can be cloned,

 

B) isn't EVER transmitted outside your internal network (so websites/online servers never see your MAC address)

 

and well, (this is the biggest one...)

 

C) what when people just buy a new PC, or a new Laptop, and start using their card online on that totally new computer?

[Waldo 96]

I'm sure banks and bigger businesses use some kind of user profiling and have automated systems in place to make educated guesses of when fraud is taking place.

 

I may be working on something similar myself right now, and that may be why I was asking about MAC address...

[swarfendor437 14]

Well on a slightly different note (but could be argued related) was I installed a piece of hardware on a homebrew machine with Windows 7 on it and Microsoft thought it was running illegal version of Windows - that's because they make a note of the hardware that is in use when you 'activate' 7 (and presumably 8 ).

[L00b 441]

Well on a slightly different note (but could be argued related) was I installed a piece of hardware on a homebrew machine with Windows 7 on it and Microsoft thought it was running illegal version of Windows - that's because they make a note of the hardware that is in use when you 'activate' 7 (and presumably 8 ).

I seem to remember this 'feature' (ho-hum) originally came in with XP?

 

I had the same issue (online validation fail despite fully-legit & previously-validated installed) years ago, after I upgraded 'majorly' an AMD64-based HP desktop (upgraded mobo/cpu (still AMD64, higher clocksp.)/gpu/psu, but kept everything else as is, incl.original HDD with OS install).

 

Would have been around 2006-2007 IIRC.

Edited January 30, 2013 by L00b

[Resident 1,185]

So long as you have the COA then you're fine. If it fails to validate you just ring the free number for the automated validation system, enter a few numbers and voila. Done. Takes about 10 mins.

[truman 10]

I read the BBC report yesterday...it seems to have disappeared now..from what I remember the guy said he'd done a lot of buying on his card previous to changing the hardware..I would think that it was this that caused his card to be declined..his spending pattern had changed and the bank flagged it up as unusual..? As Ghozer said what happens if you use a new PC or do a transaction on someone else's machine...?

[alchresearch 214]

Noticed this on the Edugeek forum the other day and it was ripped to shreds.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/107829-corrent-me-if-im-wrong-but.html

[truman 10]

Noticed this on the Edugeek forum the other day and it was ripped to shreds.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/107829-corrent-me-if-im-wrong-but.html

 

That's quite a shellaking for the report isn't it?

[swarfendor437 14]

Would this make it possible?

 

http://geekswithblogs.net/Lance/archive/2007/08/20/How-to-Retrieve-Remote-MAC-Address-Programmatically.aspx

[altus 540]

Would this make it possible?

 

http://geekswithblogs.net/Lance/archive/2007/08/20/How-to-Retrieve-Remote-MAC-Address-Programmatically.aspx

 

They will normally only work on the local network.

 

I suppose if your ADSL modem was set to support SNMP and had access to it enabled on the WAN interface (i.e. the internet connection) you could access it remotely then.

 

Games knowing about it, as mentioned in the article, I can understand. Any application that can query the MAC address could send it over the net and I can imagine something like Steam might do so. You would hope a web browser wouldn't though.