Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/19

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: what would you do ?
From: Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 21:33:15 -0800
 
> since it seems like Brian wants to talk
> about this:

Well, not really. I just didn't want to see people unnecessarily afraid
of putting credit card numbers in email. The probability-theory
analysis works if all email traffic is credit card numbers. If you
assume that every 16-digit number is a credit card number and that its
expiration date and billing address are in the same packet, the
probability that you can, by monitoring a packet path, grab a credit
card number and the information needed to authenticate it is very low. 

If such wiretapping were legal I'd try it right now to see what sort of
a hit rate I get. But the Communications Privacy Act of 1986 makes such
tapping illegal in the USA (18 USC 2510), so I won't.