[Interesting implications on automated traffic analysis... --Perry] At 1:37 AM -0600 on 2/1/01, by way of [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > GUARDIAN ANGEL > We wouldn't go so far as to suggest that your are boring, but this > week's New Scientist does have evidence that you are somewhat > predictable. Especially when you use your mobile phone. Researchers at a > London company have discovered that the numbers we ring, the length of > our calls and the times of the day we make them are all characteristic > behaviours that are very specific to us. Now, SearchSpace intends to use > our "predictability" to develop a fraud-detection system which could > help foil potential phone thieves. The new system has > pattern-recognition software built into intelligent agents - called > sentinels - which assemble behaviour profiles of subscribers on a > network and demand user identification if they spot anything unusual. > According to SearchSpace's Jason Kingdon, "It's like having a virtual > software guardian assigned to each customer." > http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns9999370 -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'