A big thanks to Aaron Hillyer, a good friend of The Identity Theft Times, for this story.
"Beware P2P Networks With a Tunnel to Confidential Data, Study Warns"
InformationWeek (05/15/07) ; Greenemeier, Larry
Peer-to-peer networks are being used by cyberthieves to tunnel into networks and access confidential information, according to a new study of corporate data leaks released by researchers at Dartmouth business school. Eric Johnson, a professor of operations management at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and a co-author of the study, noted that most users were not sufficiently protecting their files and data from peer-to-peer networks. He added that the majority of peer-to-peer software applications have interface designs that are confusing and even deceptive in a way that gets users to unwittingly share the contents of their entire hard drive. This can open up consumers to identity theft, and can also give criminals access to confidential information stored on corporate networks, such as job performance reviews and the results of security audits. There are a number of ways that companies can see whether their data has been leaked onto peer-to-peer networks. For instance, security professionals can set up their own accounts on the most popular peer-to-peer networks and search to see if any information being offered is similar to their proprietary data or intellectual property. Security professionals can also keep track of all searchable keywords that would lead a Web surfer to their company, including firm names, abbreviations, and ticker symbols, and use those keywords to search peer-to-peer networks.
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