   General Question for Programmers
  (Okay, this is also in another room.  I wasn't sure where to post it so I apologize that this is a cross post.  Please erase the other one).If someone had the following information and was a very good computer programmer, what could someone do to another person - realistically?Knew your IP addressesHad a Private Investigator who was a good friendKnew your license plate numberWorked for two of the largest ISP service providers in Western Canada (both of whom you are a customer of)Has a history of breaking contracts with you with prejudiceHas contact information of many companies you have dealt with Is part of a community of about 4,000 programmersHas a friend who works for Electronic Arts and is also a partnerWhat could someone REALLY do with that amount of information???How dangerous is it for someone to know your IP address???PLEASE, only serious responses...   
  Oh my.  You might want to check and see if your computer is broadcasting an IP address, they are very dangerous!   ;  And change the license plate number on your car!;Quote:Knew your IP addressesHe could ping you.Quote:Had a Private Investigator who was a good friendDepends on what he could get the private investigator to do.Quote:Knew your license plate numberFind your car in a parking lot.Quote:Worked for two of the largest ISP service providers in Western Canada (both of whom you are a customer of)If he doesn't work for them now, nothing.Quote:Has a history of breaking contracts with you with prejudiceHe could not get hired by you again.Quote:Has contact information of many companies you have dealt withCall them.Quote:Is part of a community of about 4,000 programmersHe could waste time on the internet talking to the community, kinda like I am doing right now.Quote:Has a friend who works for Electronic Arts and is also a partnerHe could find out cheat codes to games.   ;  Seriously? The worst I see someone like that doing is spreading bad words about you with his contacts, and at that he's only likely to have much success at his actual job, were you trying to get hired there. Anywhere else and people'd just wonder why he's spewing random bile at you. It's remotely possible that he might give you some trouble with your account with your ISP, except that from the sounds of it he doesn't have that job any more, at which point he's harmless there. Just knowing your IP address is pretty pointless, assuming you have any halfway-decent security set up. Just a router would probably be enough.   ;Quote:Original post by flying12How dangerous is it for someone to know your IP address?I would say only as dangerous as you'd let them be. Do you make credit card transactions online by buying/selling/subscriptions? Do you access your bank account(s) online? Do you have any important personel information on your computer at all, online or off?If all you do online is send email and browse the web, and all you do offline is of no consequence, then what can he steal? All he could do is take control of your computer or send you viruses. However, if you know this guys name, and he is illegally doing something against you, get help."Knew your IP addresses"How'd he get it?"Had a Private Investigator who was a good friend"Bluff. Even if, why should that affect you?"Knew your license plate number"Again, how? And is he also in the car theft occupation?"Worked for two of the largest ISP service providers in Western Canada (both of whom you are a customer of)"How does he know who you use? Oh, and bluff. Besides, what does this matter?"Has a history of breaking contracts with you with prejudice"Why continue to interact with this individual?"Has contact information of many companies you have dealt with"Why did you give info of your previous employers to him, or how does he know?"Is part of a community of about 4,000 programmers"That is relatively small actaully..."Has a friend who works for Electronic Arts and is also a partner"This too, smells like a bluff; and if not, so what? Unless you work for EA it doesn't matter.It sounds like he is just using what you have told him in the past to scare you. How sure are you that he knows all this/has all this? If he is a enemy of your's, don't take his word for it.As it is, either you did something wrong or he did. If he did, I'm not a hacker, so I can't say the extent of the possible damage, but I can give this bit of advice: if this is serious, get help.   ;  If he has your IP he could try to break into your computer, just like a person knowing your address could try to break into your house. If you have firewall and other kind of security stuff he shouldn't be able to get in though. All that other stuff shouldn't matter, you don't call an ISP you have worked for an say "hi, could you please do something awful to this IP? Please...". If the ISP agreed they could probably, but then you could get the ISP in a lot of legal trouble. Knowing your license plate shouldn't matter, well if he sees your car he could try to do something to it. If you're worried he'll break into the police database and report the car being stolen and changing the owner, then that's not going to happen, the police have proper security, it's not a matter of typing "hack police.database" in a console like movies make you believe. Seriously it sounds like you have watched some movies like Hacker and Swordfish and are afraid someone at your school or work will "hack you", well they most likely won't.   ;  Of course, it's not like it's overly difficult to get someone's IP address (unless they've gone crazy with computer protection). If someone visits, say, my website, I suddenly posses a record of that IP. It's even easier to get someone's license plate number. I mean, really. Even your driver's license number is most likely public record. Yet none of these are much of a security risk for you.Now, your Social Security number would be more of a problem.   ;  I gotta say the two most dangerous things you mentioned where the 4,000 programmer community thing and the Electronic Arts thing.   ;  Okay.  Well when I was ending our business together, I have emails that he wanted to exchange photocopies of each other's driver's licenses and also videotape us signing our last contracts together.Is this normal in the computer programming world when a programmer and his client end business?   