Daly recently spoke to the Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard and made this statement : "(Daly's girlfriend Anna Cladakis) got on Facebook and the guy was talking to her and says, "If you want this back you know what to do. I will get you and I will get your daughters. I'll steal their identity." Daly also said that other things were said that, "scared him to death".
The FBI is currently conducting an investigation into the entire situation.
I guess I should not be surprised based on all of the other cases we have studied, but this seems so twisted. I cannot believe that somebody out there spend their time breaking into a professional golfer's personal sites in order to threaten them. It is hard to say what the hacker's real motivation was/is because Daly did not release that information.
A possible reason that the hacker was able to gain access to Daly's accounts is weak and repetitive passwords (using the same password for multiple accounts). Daly already shut down all of the accounts that were compromised, which was the smart thing for him to do. But I would advise all people to strengthen their passwords by using uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and a symbol. I would also suggest a password of 8 characters or more. Additionally, I think it is necessary to use different passwords for every account.
All people should be alert and constantly monitor their e-mail and social network accounts, especially famous people. Be careful where you keep and who you give sensitive information, such as your address, social security number, full name, etc.
http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/devil_ball_golf/post/John-Daly-has-Facebook-Twitter-email-hacked?urn=golf-279335
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John Daly just cannot get a break in life. However, as somebody who is guilty of reusing the same password multiple times, this makes me reconsider simply repeating that same password again and again with any account I sign up for online. Daly was targeted because he was a high profile professional golfer, but this could just as easily be any Average Joe out there, and most likely has been in the past. Recently, I have been working on not just my Facebook security but also for my mom who just signed up for a Facbook account a few weeks ago. Since she is not as computer literate as I am, I have to make sure that she is setting up her privacy settings correctly so that she does not fall victim to identity theft or other problems. Also, I never thought about the fact that Facebook can and does sell user information to help fund their site. It seems that telemarketers might be replaced by things like Facebook ads and spam due to name selling.
ReplyDeleteI believe I mentioned LastPass.com in class once. It's an interesting service that allows you to have unique passwords for every website you visit, all protected by a single password that you actually have to remember. It uses encryption in a neat way to protect everything. I'll leave the details out and suggest it as a security review post for whomever needs a topic.
ReplyDeleteTwisted indeed. This post just serves as another reminder that no one is safe from identity theft or hacking. It is quite frightening to think that there are people out there who can gain so much access to our personal information. I like your suggestions of improving password strength and not repeating passwords on different accounts. I also think finding a safe and easy way to store and remember these multiple passwords is also a great idea. I may have to make some personal security changes of my own!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is essential to have different passwords for all your different accounts so that if someone gains access to one they do not get access to all. However, I do not understand why someone would put enough personal information on a facebook account or anything of that nature to allow someone the ability to steal their identity upon gaining access to their account. I think the biggest thing to take from this article and a few others that were posted is to make sure that your accounts contain minimal personal information. There is not a whole lot that a hacker can do with your name, but if you are putting your social, address, or anything along those lines you are asking for trouble. If the social network requires an address to sign up then make one up, no one will know the difference but you are protecting yourself.
ReplyDeleteThis case is particularly striking to me because all of the cases we have discussed affected businesses and websites. This personal attack by the hacker is as John Daly suggested very scary. However, the hacking of his social network account could have been prevented had he used more secure passwords and avoided using the same password for all accounts. Although, I can say that I too am guilty of using similar or the same passwords for many of my login names. As Dr. Chapple discussed in class, the diversification of passwords is an easy way to avoid being hacked. He also suggests the LastPass.com which would help take accountability for remembering and organizing secure passwords. This case forces me to think of the possibilities of hackers attacking other professional athletes that are found using email, Twitter, and Facebook. Between the professional athletes and their agents there is a lot of information, blogs, and pictures to be hacked. I hope that people begin to learn the vulnerability of their information and make changes in the password selection process.
ReplyDelete