Data privacy and security is at the forefront of concerns facing companies looking to make the most of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. So much information is available these days on user habits and search histories.
With that in mind, it’s interesting to see how the Xbox live community has Wikipedia:
Pretexting is the act of creating and using an invented scenario (the pretext) to persuade a target to release information or perform an action and is usually done over the telephone. It's more than a simple lie as it most often involves some prior research or set up and the use of pieces of known information (e.g., for impersonation: date of birth, Social Security Number, last bill amount) to establish legitimacy in the mind of the target.
If hackers were so easily able to obtain access to multiple Xbox live accounts, what is to stop them from calling up banks, credit card agencies, and other institutions and implementing the same methodology to get their hands on financial records, account numbers, and pin codes?
The naiveté that fuels the notion of data privacy on the Internet, or anywhere else for that matter, is pretty dangerous. Ironically enough, there may be only one person who has any real power to keep your information secure -- you.
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