How Attackers Use Your Metadata Against You.

[Peaches]

Tech Insight: How Attackers Use Your Metadata Against You

Using easily accessible data about your files, bad guys can wreak havoc on your sensitive information

Feb 13, 2009 | 04:43 PM

By John Sawyer

DarkReading

A Special Analysis For Dark Reading

First of Two Articles

To steal your identity, a cybercriminal doesn't have to have direct access to your bank account or other personal information. Often, he collects information about you from a variety of seemingly innocuous sources, then uses that data to map out a strategy to crack your online defenses and drain your accounts.

Such methods are well-known to security professionals. But what those same professionals often overlook is this approach also can be used to crack the defenses of sensitive business files, as well. Rather than trying to gain access to your data, itself, the bad guys are analyzing the so-called harmless information about your files -- collectively known as metadata -- and using it to develop attacks that can drain your business of its most sensitive information.

DarkReading for full details: http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulner...ies+and+threats