INTERNET SECURITY RISKS FOR CONSUMERS OVERBLOWN

[OpsAn@gnn.com (Michael Coates)]

Just got this and found it interesting.  You may have seen it 
already...published in today's issue of Investor's Business Daily.

INTERNET SECURITY RISKS FOR CONSUMERS OVERBLOWN
Fear of Internet crime is well-founded among businesses whose corporate
networks may be compromised by curious hackers or malicious crackers, but
"By and large, consumers have very little risk using and doing business on
the Internet," says the chairman of Open Market Inc.  While it is possible
to break an encryption code and crack a secured phone line to discover an
individual's credit card number, it's much easier to copy them off of
discarded carbons.  "If someone wanted to steal a credit card number, all
they would have to do is go to any gas station and look on the ground
around the pumps," says the CTO at Internet security firm Terisa Systems. 
(Investor's Business Daily 30 Nov 95 A8)