The identity thieves are out there — and someone could be spying on you. Why your privacy on the net is at risk, and what you can do.
My colleague Joel Stein let drop a while back that he was working on a book proposal. I found it a bit frustrating that he wouldn't tell me the topic. Joel had been traveling a lot lately too — to Iceland to interview Bjork; to Hollywood for the Oscars — but he was stingy with details. Where was he going? Whom was he hanging with, and how much money was he spending? I've also wondered what kind of websites he surfs. And, O.K., I wouldn't mind reading his e-mail.
我的同事約耳·斯泰恩不久前無意中告訴我他正忙著做一個出版計(jì)劃。我心里覺得有點(diǎn)不舒服，因?yàn)樗麤]有告訴我出版圖書的主題。最近，約耳也頻繁外出——一會去冰島采訪比約克，一會又到好萊塢參加奧斯卡頒獎——但他對詳細(xì)的經(jīng)過守口如瓶。他到了什么地方？他和誰泡在一起？他花了多少錢？我也很想知道他常去哪些網(wǎng)站。好吧，我并不介意看看他的電子郵件。
So I did.
于是我這樣做了。
Joel went out of town recently, which allowed me to duck into his office and install spying software on his hard drive. You can buy commercial spyware these days, but I used VNC, which can be downloaded for free. VNC was designed to help people link their own computers. But it also worked as a cheap and easy way for me to keep tabs on Joel. Soon after loading VNC onto my computer, I was rifling through Joel's hard drive.
最近，約耳有事離開了鎮(zhèn)子，這給了我一個機(jī)會，讓我能潛入他的辦公室，在他的機(jī)器硬盤上安裝了一個監(jiān)視軟件。如今，你能夠買到商業(yè)監(jiān)視軟件，但我用的是VNC， 你可以免費(fèi)從網(wǎng)上下載。VNC 是為了幫助人們聯(lián)接自己的多臺計(jì)算機(jī)而設(shè)計(jì)的，但對我來說，它也是用來監(jiān)視約耳的一種方便又便宜的工具。然后，我迅速把VNC 下載到我的計(jì)算機(jī)上，這樣，我就可以“翻查”約耳的硬盤了。
That book proposal? With a few mouse clicks, it appeared on Joel's screen — and on mine. It was also easy to pore over his expense reports, checking out whom he took to dinner in L.A., and what he thinks passes for a legitimate expense.
那個出版計(jì)劃？只要點(diǎn)幾下鼠標(biāo)，它就出現(xiàn)在約耳的電腦屏幕上——同時也出現(xiàn)在我的屏幕上。查看其他資料也很容易，比如他的支出報告，他在洛杉磯和誰共進(jìn)晚餐，還有那些他認(rèn)為是合理支出的開銷。
Then I — or should I say Joel? — hit the Internet. The great thing about controlling another person's computer is you can surf the Web as if you were him or her. When you go to a site, his or her IP address — a kind of digital fingerprint — is the one that gets left behind, not yours.
接下來，我——我是不是應(yīng)該說是約耳——點(diǎn)擊了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)?？刂屏硗庖粋€人電腦的奇妙之處在于：你能夠冒他/她的名在網(wǎng)上沖浪。當(dāng)你進(jìn)入一個站點(diǎn)時，留下的是他/她的IP 地址——這是一種類似數(shù)字指紋的東西——而不是你的。
I was going to mess with Joel. Stop by a few investing message boards, and have him break securities law by pumping stocks.But in an effort to keep Joel —O.K., both of us — out of jail.
我打算給約耳添些麻煩。我訪問了幾個投資留言板。我通過大量投股讓約耳違反了有價證券法規(guī)。但我努力使約耳——當(dāng)然，是使我們兩個人——不會身陷牢獄。
When Joel returned, I could look over his shoulder as he surfed the Net. It was weird but oddly riveting to see his cursor click, click, click its way across my screen. But in the end, there were no busty babes, no Catholic school girls looking for trouble. He actually spent most of his time on CNN.com.
約耳回來的時候，當(dāng)他上網(wǎng)時我仍然能窺探到他的資料?？粗氖髽?biāo)指針在我的屏幕上滴答、滴答、滴答地點(diǎn)擊，這真是一種不可思議而又古怪的感覺。但最后的結(jié)果是，并沒有什么大胸脯的姑娘，也沒有什么惹火上身的天主教學(xué)校女生。實(shí)際上，他的大多數(shù)時間都花在瀏覽CNN網(wǎng)站上。
Then he started opening his e-mail. The first was from our boss, about Joel's next column. Another was from Joel's girlfriend's brother asking Joel to score free concert tickets.
然后，他開始打開電子信箱。第一封信是我們的老板發(fā)來的，內(nèi)容是關(guān)于約耳的下一個專欄。另一封信是約耳女朋友的弟弟發(fā)來的，內(nèi)容是讓約耳搞到免費(fèi)的音樂會門票。
I also had Joel's Social Security number, the keys to the kingdom. Those digits would be enough on some websites to get me a driver's license in his name — and to start a full-scale identity theft. Before long, I could be ruining his credit rating, draining his bank accounts.
我也得到了約耳的社會安全號碼，這可是通往私人王國的鑰匙。在一些網(wǎng)站上，這些數(shù)字完全可以讓我得到一個以約耳名字申請的駕駛執(zhí)照——并且可以做一個完完全全的身份竊賊。不久，我就可以毀壞他的信用度，取空他的銀行帳戶。
Too bad my editors, darn them, insisted that I tell Joel what I was doing. Not that it would have been difficult to really spy on Joel at his home computer. I could have sent him spyware wrapped in an e-greeting card, programmed to install itself when he opened the card. He'd never know.
我的編輯們實(shí)在太差勁了，這些該死的家伙，堅(jiān)持讓我告訴約耳我所做的一切。真的要想在約耳家里的計(jì)算機(jī)上監(jiān)視他并不是那么困難。我可以發(fā)給他帶有監(jiān)視程序的電子賀卡，他打開賀卡的時候程序會自動安裝。他不會知道。
It's been two years since Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy delivered his famous warning: "You have zero privacy [on the Internet] anyway. Get over it." Privacy advocates resisted that pessimistic assessment at the time. But since then, hardly a week goes by without a news story suggesting McNealy was on to something.
兩年前Sun Microsystems 公司的CEO 史考特·麥克尼利發(fā)表了他的警告：“總之，（在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上）你沒有隱私。忘記它吧?！碑?dāng)時，隱私權(quán)的擁護(hù)者們反對這種悲觀的評價。但自那時以來，幾乎每一個星期都會有一些新的消息向我們暗示：麥克尼利言中了一些事情。
VNC: Virtual Network Computing，遠(yuǎn)程遙控程序，它可以安裝在Windows中而讓使用者在世界各地遠(yuǎn)端遙控自己的電腦。(BY ADAM COHEN 翻譯：Bull