Editing 2388: Viral Quiz Identity Theft

{{comic
| number    = 2388
| date      = November 20, 2020
| title     = Viral Quiz Identity Theft
| image     = viral_quiz_identity_theft.png
| titletext = [scrolling through a giant spreadsheet of transcribed data] 'Wow, a surprising number of users grew up at 420 69th St.' 'Yeah, must be a high-rise or something.'
}}

==Explanation==

[[Hairy]] is trying to compile a list of names and addresses, for identity theft purposes. He intends to do so by posting an online quiz to entice people into posting their personal information; for example, [https://www.yelp.com/topic/los-angeles-whats-your-porn-star-name-2 asking people to post their 'porn star name'] by combining their pet's name (or their middle name, or their mother's maiden name) and the street they grew up on. However, as [[White Hat]] points out, a lot of this information is already in the {{w|public record}} making his "viral quiz" unnecessary. This comic is one of very few where White Hat's argument is not used as a {{w|straw man}}; rather, Hairy is the unenlightened one and White Hat has the idea that will require much less work for the same result.  However, when Hairy proves to have no idea about public records, White Hat decides that it will be easier (or at least more fun) to just play along with Hairy's plan rather than try to educate him.

Even though White Hat is correct that there are public databases with lists of legal names and addresses, lots of online interactions take place in forums where people adopt pseudonyms.  A viral quiz like this one could be useful for de-anonymizing users, a process known colloquially as "{{w|doxing}}". There is also a suspicion that these kind of viral quizzes are used to create databases to answer password recovery questions correctly. Together with a man-in-the-middle attack on the email system used, this can lead to hackers taking over user accounts.

In the title text, it turns out that lots of users did not provide their personal information. Instead they provided fake information, which Hairy naively takes as truth.  The number '420' is associated with {{w|420 (cannabis culture)|the use of marijuana}} and the number '69' is used to refer to {{w|69 (sex position)|a sex position}}.  These two numbers have found their way into society from memes to [https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/14/elon-musks-tweets-the-model-s-will-be-price-at-69420-because-hes-a-child/#:~:text=Tesla%20CEO%20and%20resident%20meme,a%20whim%20and%20a%20joint.| car prices]. White Hat could also be taking the data at its word when he replies that there must be a {{w|high-rise building}} at that address to hold so many respondents, but it is more likely that he is making a sarcastic double-entendre pun.

If Hairy had talked to [[Black Hat|''Black'' Hat]], he might have been told about [[792: Password Reuse|the time Black Hat made a bunch of free web services]] to harvest usernames and passwords.  Black Hat's project stalled when he realized that he didn't know what he wanted to do with the information he harvested, and Hairy's plan doesn't seem very well-thought-out past the "get personal details" step either.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy and White Hat are standing across from each other at a table.  Each has a laptop open in front of him.]

:Hairy: Here's my plan: we start a viral quiz to trick people into posting the name of the street they lived on as a kid.
:Hairy: Then we use it to steal their identity!
:White Hat: Okay.
:White Hat: Just checking, you know voter files and mortgages and stuff are mostly public records, right?
:Hairy: Huh? What are you talking about?
:White Hat: ...Nothing.  We can do your thing.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computer security]]
[[Category:Identity Theft]]