Closing case study 2 chapter 8

1. If you were the manager of a company where it was discovered that credit card information had been stolen, what responsibility would you have to the people whose personal information was compromised? What are the pros and cons of notifying and of not notifying possible victims?
2. E*Trade, a leader in online brokerage services, is the first company to go to a two-factor authentication system optionally available to its customers with accounts of $50,000 or more. The first factor is the ID and password that customers have always needed, and second, they use a security token or, as E*Trade calls it, a Digital Security ID. This is a little device that you can carry on your key chain that displays a new random six-digit number every minute. E*Trade's host system must, of course, synchronize with the device.When you log in, you have to type in this number after your ID and password. Since the number changes so often's it's virtually impossible to hack an account with this two-pronged protection. From a consumer's point of view, do you think this is a good idea? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the system to businesses and customers? With which online transactions would you consider it worthwhile to enforce this level of security? Remember that you might have a lot of these tokens if you use a lot of online services.
3. In this case study you saw how personal information can be stolen from huge databases and data warehouses. What other ways are there that thieves can obtain personal information about you that would allow them to steal your identity and run up debts in your name? To what extent would you be liable for these debts? What would you have to do (What steps would you take) to reestablish your financial identity if you discovered your identity had been stolen?
4. In the case of the Bank of America, the data was being shipped on tapes to a safe location.This is very good backup policy to make sure that in the event of a major disaster like a fire or flood, data can be quickly restored enabling the company to be back in operation as soon as possible. However, this procedure leaves the company vulnerable to old-fashioned theft of the physical tapes containing personal information. What are two ways that this information that travels on trucks and planes could be protected?