In: Computer Science
A purchasing department received the following e-mail.
Dear Accounts Payable Clerk,
You can purchase everything you need online—including peace of
mind—when you shop using Random Account Numbers (RAN). RAN is a
free service for Big Credit Card customers that substitutes a
random credit card number in place of your normal credit card
number when you make online purchases and payments. This random
number provides you with additional security. Before every online
purchase, simply get a new number from RAN to use at each new
vendor. Sign up for an account at www.bigcreditcard.com. Also, take
advantage of the following features:
Automatic Form automatically completes a vendor’s order form with the RAN, its
expiration date, and your shipping and billing addresses.
Set the spending limit and expiration date for each new RAN.
Use RAN once or use it for recurring payments for up to one year.
REQUIRED
Explain which computer fraud and abuse techniques could be prevented using a ran- dom account number that links to your corporate credit card.
1. Eavesdropping/ Compromised accounts :- If someone wiretaps your device and hears your conversation about the RAN, you can easily destroy your RAN.
2. Theft of card no. :- Since, RAN is not physical, you can change RAN at your convenience before someone misuses it.
3. Phishing :- The RAN won't automatically fill in details on a fake website. That way, you can know which sites are fake and which are not.
4. Keylogging/ Account takeover :- If you add balance according to your transaction, once you've spend all your money in your RAN(in a single transaction), the account info is a waste for the person using keylogger on your device.
Right now, I am able to think of only these 4. I'll add more soon.