Via Slashdot: California Police Arrest Man in Bank PC Theft.
The guy who posted the article about this wondered about what kind of data is being transferred when you login or while online. After reading the money paragraph, I had the same question:
Investigators traced the computer to Krastof when he logged onto his own America Online account at home through one of the stolen computers, White said. That enabled authorities to connect the computer’s Internet Protocol address, a number that identifies a computer on the Internet, to Krastof’s home address through his AOL account, White said.
While this was a wonderful crime fighting tool, I’m not sure I like it, even with judicial oversight. In fact, I know I don’t like it. Anyone who wants to can get my IP address, find out my name and link it up with one or more serial numbers in my machine, then track me wherever I take my laptop. This is the kind of precursor that leads to identity theft. I’m just glad I don’t have an identity worth stealing. Who would want to be me?
UPDATE: My friend Mike wrote to me and tells me the inept, inbred idiot (my words, not his) used the AOL account already on the PC. Police, alert to any use of these accounts, had a hit and traced it back to the perp. Which does not change anything on what I said. Anyone armed with my IP address and the ability to hack into systems could still easily find out who I am and everything else they needed to know.