Branded!
Here's a cool new way to fight Internet fraud--by identifying machines used by crooks, and permanently branding them with The Mark of Cain!
Well, actually it's a bit of software that marks the machine as having been used by crooks. From then on, websites using this new service will refuse to do business with that machine ever again.
But what if the user wipes his hard drive and reinstalls Windows? Won't that get rid of the brand? The article doesn't say. Hmmm...this might not work.
Then again, Microsoft and some other companies use a "fingerprinting" system that records the serial numbers from key computer components like the hard drive. Why not use a system based on this principle? Even if you wipe the software, the serial numbers of the hardware will remain unchanged. Maybe that's the best way to nail the crooks.