Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: xanonymous on May 06, 2012, 06:44 pm
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Hello community,
Im very interested in how the vendors handle the private addresses they get from their customers to send the orders to it.
Of course the mail itself is encrypted and only the vendor can open the mail with his private key. But the email is on the server (if not getting it off via pop3 or explicitly deleting it).
Assuming all orders stay encrypted on the webserver I think it is a high risk for all customers. If the vendor gets busted Im very sure he will give the data (private key/password) to the police to limit his punishment.
Has anyone experiences in how the vendors handle this confidential information?
greets
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Vendors delete all of this information after they use it, at least this is what is supposed to happen.
There might be the odd few who keep this information but its not general practice.
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I get the address encrypted and delete it when it's on the package.
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there is no need for the vendor to keep the address, most of them will delete them after shipping / after the package leaves their factory / house.
If a vendor keeps all addresses it would potentially be a big security risk for him, because it will allow the police to
1. estimate the number of customers / shipped packages -> may lead to more problems (more volume = more problems)
2. allow the police to contact persons who may function as witnesses, which isn´t wanted by the vendor
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Exactly, the vendor is supposed to delete addresses immediately after printing them onto packages. Only a stupid vendor would keep customer addresses on hand after packaging. Not only because it's now useless clutter, but for the reasons Meme pointed out above. It can only hurt a vendor to save addresses.
We've had one or two incidences where vendors have blackmailed a customer regarding their address. That vendor thought he was pretty clever by keeping addresses on hand, but as you can see, he was actually being woefully naive and risking his own safety by saving them.
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Exactly, the vendor is supposed to delete addresses immediately after printing them onto packages. Only a stupid vendor would keep customer addresses on hand after packaging. Not only because it's now useless clutter, but for the reasons Meme pointed out above. It can only hurt a vendor to save addresses.
We've had one or two incidences where vendors have blackmailed a customer regarding their address. That vendor thought he was pretty clever by keeping addresses on hand, but as you can see, he was actually being woefully naive and risking his own safety by saving them.
And if you do need to keep addresses around for some reason e.g. a scammer black list, then you can just use address hashing so you don't actually have the address itself. More on this later this week.
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And if you do need to keep addresses around for some reason e.g. a scammer black list, then you can just use address hashing so you don't actually have the address itself. More on this later this week.
I didn't think of an address blacklist. It would certainly help fill in some of the obvious gaps caused by having just a username blacklist. Looking forward to hashing details.