Editing Pseudonym (section)

====Confidentiality====
Most Web sites that offer pseudonymity retain information about users. <!-- They  should protect their users from unwanted disclosures of personal information; in other words, they should assure confidentiality (the information is available only to those authorized to have access). COMMENT:  it is not encyclopedic to talk about what web sites should or shouldn't do.  This could be reworded to discuss the benefits of assuring confidentiality (referenced of course), but I do not know enough about the issue to do it. --> These sites are often susceptible to unauthorized intrusions into their non-public database systems. For example, in 2000, a Welsh teenager obtained information about more than 26,000 credit card accounts, including that of Bill Gates.<ref name="The Irish Times 2000">{{cite news |title=Teenagers hack Gates's credit card |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=2000-03-31 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/teenagers-hack-gates-s-credit-card-1.261930 |access-date=2021-02-21}}</ref><ref name="Enos 2000">{{cite web |first=Lori |last=Enos |title=Welsh Teens Arrested for E-Commerce Hack Attacks |website=E-Commerce Times |date=2000-03-27 |url=https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2824.html |access-date=2021-02-21}}</ref> In 2003, VISA and MasterCard announced that intruders obtained information about 5.6 million credit cards.<ref>Katayama, F. (2003) [http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/02/17/creditcard.hack/ "Hacker accesses 5.6 Million Credit Cards" ''CNN.com:'' Technology (February 18, 2003).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024014/http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/02/17/creditcard.hack/ |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> Sites that offer pseudonymity are also vulnerable to confidentiality breaches. In a study of a Web dating service and a [[pseudonymous remailer]], [[University of Cambridge]] researchers discovered that the systems used by these Web sites to protect user data could be easily compromised, even if the pseudonymous channel is protected by strong encryption. Typically, the protected pseudonymous channel exists within a broader framework in which multiple vulnerabilities exist.<ref>{{cite book | doi = 10.1007/3-540-45496-9_17 | last1 = Clayton | first1 = R. | last2 = Danezis | first2 = G. | last3 = Kuhn | first3 = M. | title = Information Hiding | chapter = Real World Patterns of Failure in Anonymity Systems | year = 2001 | url = http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/Patterns_of_Failure.pdf | volume = 2137 | pages = 230–244 | series = Lecture Notes in Computer Science | isbn = 978-3-540-42733-9 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.16.7923 }}</ref> Pseudonym users should bear in mind that, given the current state of Web security engineering, their true names may be revealed at any time.