Protecting online identity
Omar Shahine is a Tech Blogger and a Microsoft Employee. I love his blog.
Unfortunately Omar’s is in a bit of a sticky situation at the moment his online identity has been compromised.
Essentially someone has broken into his Hotmail account and he goes into some depth about what he is doing about it.
Now Omar is in a unique position he works for Microsoft. If he cant get to the bottom of this issue then I haven’t clue who could.
So if you keep lots of your life online in the likes of hotmail/google then I suggest you read all about his experience on the link below, just for preparedness if nothing else. Also check the comments for additional info and tips.
Link: http://www.shahine.com/omar/WhatWillYouDoWhenItHappensToYou.aspx
My tips are for your online silos
1) Keep very little online
Example: if you order goods online why not print the receipt to PDF and store the PDF on your local computer and delete the one in your online mailbox.
2) Change your password often.
Example: Use a combination of letters and numbers
3) Check your account frequently for signs of tampering
Example: an email request to reset passwords etc.
4) Be very wary of public access computers like in Internet Cafe’s for example.
If you have other helpful tips please use the comments.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. With so many people taking to Facebook, MySpace etc it’s very easy to learn about individuals and with a little bit of social hacking you can become their friend and get to know their partner’s name, their dog’s name, even who they bank with.
Bloggers must also beware because many are unknowingly providing ID fraudsters with personal information, especially those who mention personal events and people in their life.
Suppose you set up a hotmail account and choose your daughter’s name followed by her birth date as the password. This is more common than you think. If you blog about your daughter then hackers can take a long shot at guessing at your password.
The best advice is to avoid adding information about yourself to social networking sites and blogs (not gonna happen!) and most importantly use a different password for each website and account you have. Passwords shouldn’t be words contained in the dictionary.
A tip to create a secure password that’s also easy to remember, think of an unusual 8+ character word (not anything that someone would associate with you) and replace certain letters with numbers and symbols. e.g. cabaretclub becomes (6b6r3t(1ub. You’ll get used to it but it increases your security by a huge factor. Just don’t use the same password for each website. Personally I don’t trust websites to store my password securely, especially sites that have the facility to email you a reminder of your password. Big no-no.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Colin, my use of the word “you” isn’t aimed at you, I know you’re good with security! I’m using the French version of the word – vous. Is it too late to adopt that into the English language? It could be very useful.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Hi Gary
I know what you mean. Thats some very good advice in your comments. I agree with it all.
Colin