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Problem now with this idiot spouting a load of FAS - Vmyths » False Authority Syndrome is that he will asked to contribute to yet more pointless articles. Maybe he knows Andrew Benson the BBC Formula 1 writer. His articles are complete and utter shit too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sdrawkcab
Very little info is passed along to websites while browsing, things like OS version, Browser Type&Version, screen resolution & obviously IP address are but MAC address certainly isn't although I guess an activeX script may be able to pull it in some way?
Games may possibly check the MAC address for copy protection purposes
As above none of these would be reliable ways to prevent fraud, unusually large/frequent transactions or transactions from other countrys raise alarm bells.
I hope the BBC aren't paying him much, I'd fear for my job if I let that article get published!
MAC is layer two and does not transition layer 3 boundaries ( routers ) steam may be able to use Mac as it is a local app so it can access the hardware layer, if a browser did that they would probably be brought before several dozen privacy commissioners.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pottsey
Sites can grab user agent string, takes is and browser engine, sometimes platform ( but this can be spoofed ), Java ( this time by design ) can leak all sorts like resolution, have version, colour depth etc. Cookies can also be accessed. Using this and browser/plugin fingerprinting you can identify PCs quite well.
Your MAC address will never even make it onto the internet. It's best if you think of MAC addressing as a way for the network to know what device to direct your messages to next. So the frame (chunk of data) leaving your PC has your network card as the source MAC and your router as the destination MAC. When it reaches your router, the router changes the frame so that it has the router as the source MAC and the next-hop device (probably another router) as the destination. By the time the data reaches its intended target, the MAC addresses on the frame will have been changed multiple times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pottsey
I would imagine they store a cookie on your machine to identify you primarily, and then use things like time zone/location to back that up. Steam uses a cookie method where it places an encrypted cookie containing a hardware profile of the PC on your machine to identify you after you enter the email verificaion code. I think that's to stop people stealing your cookie and using it to authenticate their own session on the steam store though, I don't think they prevent you from logging in on another machine as long as you enter the correct code from the email verification.
Especially the ones 'written' by Rory Cellophane-Jones.........Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryTechnician
Can that plonker actually write ? Lordy !!Quote:
Originally Posted by tech_guy
Thanks for the info.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sdrawkcab
I was thinking surly part of the hardware profile is the motherboard, network card and MAC address? Even if it’s not being sent across the internet, local hardware is being used to identify computers for some online shops like Steam or Itunes.
Changing the motherboard and network cards would be more than enough to make the hardware profile invalid. Perhaps the article writer was wrong about the Mac address but I think he was on the right idea that changing the network card and motherboard was what triggered the fraud protection.
That's only for each machine though. Steam will allow you to login to multiple machines and will store a seperate cookie on each one. The hardware profile, in this case, is used to prevent malware from stealing the cookie and using it to authenticate another machine (rather than stealing the password to the account and using that to login elsewhere).Quote:
Originally Posted by Pottsey
The only time I've ever had something like this happen to me was when I used Tor at a previous job to get around the work firewall and buy something from Amazon. Because the login appeared to come from a totally different geographical location, the bank cancelled my card. I've never had an issue using multiple PCs within the same country though.
*Correct*Quote:
Originally Posted by mattx
/Pedant.
They see me trollin'. . . .
^ Came in to corrent this. ;)