Absolutely.
IF I were a hacker I could fairly easily do one of several things:
- Get into the MP system itself, find out the email address that you register with, and trace that email to one of many different sources (including your home IP address, map that -both geographically, and usage - as in where you live and what sites you visit/ anywhere that IP address goes to).
- Trace your IP address without you email
My husband could do it (he's a computer guy), as could many of his friends. One of the companies he used to work for datamined trillions of phone calls every year (the DHS, NSA, and others were frequently poking around in that database. Only one or two cell companies argued with them, the rest said 'have at'). Just last week hackers made it through the VERY beefy security of the pentagon, and through the british royal family's security. The security of a dinky message board? Cake.
If I were a governmental agency I could do it as well.
Why don't I worry? Because I'm not that interesting. I'm just one peasant amongst millions, talking about the same old boring stuff that millions of others talk about. I don't have anything worth the EFFORT of someone hacking and tracing me. I'm boring :) :) :) I rather like being boring. But I'm boring on several levels. I'm boring from a "stuff" standpoint (nothing I own isn't easily accessible though thousands of stores both real and online), I'm boring from a "challenge" standpoint (a 9yo could crack the encryption of my personal use sites... it's like setting the CIA or MI6 on reading my son's secret messages written in lemon juice about where his buried treasure -an action figure and $2 worth of pennies is- in the yard. Um. Put in the oven. Find action figure. Yawn.), and I'm boring from a govt standpoint (very boring. SAHM totally unaffiliated with any political, religious, or criminal organization? Please.) I'm not worth the time of anyone with the skill to do so.
My husband, otoh, does. He handles secure information all the time. He has rotating security codes (changing every 6 seconds), he has tunnel access. His IPs and other info get bounced across dozens of servers all over the world, and they change constantly. Multilevel firewalls on each system. And dozens of other tricks, traps, and security measures. Why do I have absolutely no qualm about saying so? Because the information that he handles secure information is ALSO boring, and easily obtainable. Millions do. IF someone was targeting his company, and IF that someone decided to target him, there is absolutely nothing I could put out there on here that isn't as obvious as "Banks keep locks on their money? REALLY??"
It's how IT guys and companies protect their information. It's how governments and certain agencies protect their information. It's how criminals and criminal organizations protect their information.
OH NO! Someone could find out I have a kid and a dog and a house? Where I keep cheap and easily obtainable goods?
No. I'm not worried. Because I'm boring.
The only way someone would use ME is if they were using the 3 F's to break him (and he doesn't handle info that useful or interesting to require breaking him). ((3F's are Finances, Friends, & Family. Govts go in that order, Criminals go in the other.)) And they wouldn't find me by hacking my accounts, or going all mission impossible on my electronic meanderings. They'd find me by following him home from work. Most people have regular, easy to follow routines. The go from the same place to the same place every single day.
Boring.
