As already described a multitude of times on this blog, numerous viruses are floating around social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. These sites have had to improve their security measures in order to keep up to speed with social networking hackers. In the article, “Viruses that Leave Victims Red in the Facebook”, Matt Marques, a public relations employee, tells of when his Twitter account sent out an abundant of messages containing a virus. The message offered the reader a gift card worth $500 to Victoria’s Secret. When Marques was informed that his Twitter account was sending out messages about underwear, he became embarrassed and wondered how many people this message had reached. He acted as if he lost some of his pride due to the content of this message, even though the receivers of the message eventually found out the message was a virus.
Although Marques might have felt ashamed of the message that was being sent to his Twitter followers, he should have been more ashamed of his password. Marques revealed his password was “abc123”. As we described in class, an easily breakable password takes little time for a hacker to infiltrate. Had he used a password mixed with upper case and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols, the chances of this happening would have decreased significantly. It is baffling that an employed, educated man working in public relations would have such a weak password. This goes to show that all individuals need to be informed of password security and the important of password strength.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/technology/internet/14virus.html?_r=1
Friday, December 18, 2009
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With all the attacks on social networking sites, it amazes me that anyone would even use them. For sites that gain revenue based on advertising, it is interesting that people still trust to use them, after it has proven that their security is not that great. I'm not so sure the problem lies in the companies, or with the public feeling the need to put their lives out on the internet.
ReplyDeleteThis again goes to show that people underestimate the magnitude of security risks associated with social networking websites. The owner of the Twitter account was lucky that a virus was the only thing sent from his account. The result of his disregard for password security could have been even more embarrassing if the attacker had executed a phishing scam on all of his contacts, perhaps asking for financial information with a gift certificate in return.
ReplyDeleteWhat is funny about this is that Twitter does in fact inform you of your password strength. So not only did an educated man think this password was a good idea, he was told it wasn't and still went through with it. Does this guy still have his job? Attacks occur on people who are careful and try to protect themselves. What could you possibly expect when you basically invite a hacker into your account?
ReplyDeleteEven with the precautions of password strength indicators, people refuse to take the time to come up with something unique. I think this is a good space to promote the password-safe mentioned earlier in the year. Anything to get people to protect their information.