[ILUG] social authentication (was IOL Broadband handing over information.)

[Kae Verens]

Rick Moen wrote:

>I said, "Sir, I certainly mean no offence, and it's certainly highly
>likely that you're calling from the Sunnyvale Police Department on
>official business, but you're asking for possibly sensitive information,
>and so far I know you only as a voice on a telephone."  He offered me
>his direct telephone number, but I reminded him that, for the same
>reason, I'd prefer to be transferred to him from the Sunnyvale PD main
>switchboard.
>  
>

That's exactly the kind of paranoia that I like to cultivate here in 
work. Unfortunately, there is a clash sometimes between the effort 
involved in authenticating a call from scratch (look up the number on 
their website, call, and ask to be transfered), and the time (and 
therefore, the monetary value) involved in completing the request. In 
some cases, we need to make a decision whether to "just do it", or 
insist on the procedure.

I notice, for example, that I can get Eircom to change DNS information 
by just emailing them. As far as I remember, I've never been asked to 
authenticate that I have adminstrative rights for such domains, though. 
I guess, as a professional in the web industry, I have somehow inherited 
a certain authority and they respect that I wouldn't abuse that... hmm...

Kae