We've all done it. We've signed up for this forum or any other website which wants us to verify our address. Or maybe we do not want to communicate with the site, but it needs an address anyways. Whatever the reason, why must we keep giving our information away? Giving away our information, even as little as an email address, opens people up for spam and junk mail. Ok, so this may not be a miracle solution but it is a step towards fighting spam.
If you are stuck in one of the aforementioned situations, go to a website such as mailinator.This is a free disposable email. when you need a quick email that is ot dependent on your regular email so you do not have to give out information, go to this site and pick out a name on the fly. The website generates a email inbox for you so you can use this email address you created for the form on the website requesting your address. Then on the main screen in mailinator where it says check your inbox, type in the temporary email and click go. That takes you to a temporary inbox where you can click on the email and verify your email address so you can have access to the site.
This way, you do not have to give our an email address to a site that may possible sell or give it to someone else to spam you. But do not use these temporary email addresses as your real email address. Obviously after a certain time, the temporary inboxes are deleted rfor someone else to use. After all, I wonder how many people have used johndoe@mailinator.com as an email?
Showing posts with label online security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online security. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving and a security lesson
Happy Thanksgiving and have a safe Black Friday. I don't want to hear on the news about how people are shooting each other for the latest toy. It happens every year....
Much safer to shop online on Cyber Monday....or is it?
You will not get beat up or shot at online. But the thing that shoppers must be aware of is what sights they give their credit number to. Sites like Amazon, Ebay, Best Buy, etc are big names so they have paid for their servers to be secure. They have their reputation to protect after all. But that's a different story. The easiest thing fro anyone shopping online is they should look at the website address before they give their credit card online to anyone, whether it is a big name company's site or not. Just get into the habit of looking at the web address to keep yourself safe. The website address that asks for a customer's credit card information should always begin with HTTPS. If it begins with only HTTP, the site is not secure and should not be trusted with your credit card information. The HTTPS is more secure because the session that you have with the website is encrypted, or scrambled, so it is not as likely that prying eyes will see your private information.
So if you are shopping online during the holidays, do not forget to look at the web address when you are looking at the sale price of things. If you go to an unsecured site, then it may be that the price of your shopping list contents is irrelevant if someone gets a hold of your credit card information by shopping on unsecured sites.
Much safer to shop online on Cyber Monday....or is it?
You will not get beat up or shot at online. But the thing that shoppers must be aware of is what sights they give their credit number to. Sites like Amazon, Ebay, Best Buy, etc are big names so they have paid for their servers to be secure. They have their reputation to protect after all. But that's a different story. The easiest thing fro anyone shopping online is they should look at the website address before they give their credit card online to anyone, whether it is a big name company's site or not. Just get into the habit of looking at the web address to keep yourself safe. The website address that asks for a customer's credit card information should always begin with HTTPS. If it begins with only HTTP, the site is not secure and should not be trusted with your credit card information. The HTTPS is more secure because the session that you have with the website is encrypted, or scrambled, so it is not as likely that prying eyes will see your private information.
So if you are shopping online during the holidays, do not forget to look at the web address when you are looking at the sale price of things. If you go to an unsecured site, then it may be that the price of your shopping list contents is irrelevant if someone gets a hold of your credit card information by shopping on unsecured sites.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
SOPA: Internet Censorship the wrong way
Although, I am pro censorship, it is within reason. The SOPA bill is not within reason.
It is more important to go after people who engage in such acts as child pornography than those who pirate software and movies. (no matter what one might think of doing that to begin with. To each their own).
Google can remove sites from being picked up by its search engine. It is rare, but this is one of the things that the lawmakers want is to have Google remove sites deemed to have copyrighted information there. But they will not stop there. They want DNS services to block access to the sites. Why isn't this much energy being given to bigger issues? I'll tell you why.
It's all about the benjamins, baby! Take a look here to see who is for the SOPA bill and internet censorship and which politicians get their pockets full from donors.
While much of the entertainment industry is for the SOPA bill, much of the tech world is not.
Under the SOPA act, I wonder how many videos will be illegal? Many bands put covers on Youtube, and many people love making videos as a hobby. It is not out of disrespect for the artists. In fact, many artists like seeing their fans' creativity as much as their own as seen on a 20/20 episode in September.
By allowing the SOPA bill to pass, many people will be affected. Much creativity will be lost and companies like Google or Yahoo will be sued just for having an illegal site in their search engine. By having them spend all their money fighting lawsuits from the US government, they will not be able to spend their money on creating jobs or having the best businesses. As a result, the government will further hurt its own people that will deepen the wound already created by the economic crisis of the past few years.
It is more important to go after people who engage in such acts as child pornography than those who pirate software and movies. (no matter what one might think of doing that to begin with. To each their own).
Google can remove sites from being picked up by its search engine. It is rare, but this is one of the things that the lawmakers want is to have Google remove sites deemed to have copyrighted information there. But they will not stop there. They want DNS services to block access to the sites. Why isn't this much energy being given to bigger issues? I'll tell you why.
It's all about the benjamins, baby! Take a look here to see who is for the SOPA bill and internet censorship and which politicians get their pockets full from donors.
While much of the entertainment industry is for the SOPA bill, much of the tech world is not.
Under the SOPA act, I wonder how many videos will be illegal? Many bands put covers on Youtube, and many people love making videos as a hobby. It is not out of disrespect for the artists. In fact, many artists like seeing their fans' creativity as much as their own as seen on a 20/20 episode in September.
By allowing the SOPA bill to pass, many people will be affected. Much creativity will be lost and companies like Google or Yahoo will be sued just for having an illegal site in their search engine. By having them spend all their money fighting lawsuits from the US government, they will not be able to spend their money on creating jobs or having the best businesses. As a result, the government will further hurt its own people that will deepen the wound already created by the economic crisis of the past few years.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Script Kiddies new victim: USA Today
At least when The Script Kiddies hacked USA Today's Twitter account, they did not spread rumors about a false terrorist attack. But still, hacking is hacking in the eyes of the FBI. (Not to mention the owners of the hacked accounts).
Groups like this really should have no second chance though. Twitter should have shut down their account after the 9/11 hack. Also Twitter is a bit loose on security. It is questionable who has account credentials once a user clicks allow for a third party program to gain access to the account. Also it appears to be too easy to take over someone's Twitter account. Think about how many times in the past year a Twitter account has been compromised and talked about in the news. It happens less with Facebook. Facebook takes great measures to provide security to deter hacking attempts. If Facebook sees unusual activity on the account (ex: a login which is usually coming from Boston comes from Japan in the same day), they will suspend the account. In order to use the account again, the user must give backup information that Facebook has on file in order to prove maintain integrity, and the user is forced to reset the password.
Twiter does not have this. When thinking about this, it did not make sense for Twiter not to implement this security on the accounts. In profile settings in Twitter, there is a tab for mobile. This tab is for allowing or not allowing mobile alerts. Why not have the users enter in their cell phone number, but they can still have the option to not allow tweets on their mobile phone? This way, if there is unusual activity on their account, Twitter has their phone number and can at least send them a text message alerting the user. This way, the user can take appropriate actions in order to have Twitter suspend the account for their protection or let Twitter know everything is ok.
While the social network sites compete with each other to have the biggest user base, it would be beneficial if they all were mindful of security and implement it to however it may fit into the user experience they provide.
Groups like this really should have no second chance though. Twitter should have shut down their account after the 9/11 hack. Also Twitter is a bit loose on security. It is questionable who has account credentials once a user clicks allow for a third party program to gain access to the account. Also it appears to be too easy to take over someone's Twitter account. Think about how many times in the past year a Twitter account has been compromised and talked about in the news. It happens less with Facebook. Facebook takes great measures to provide security to deter hacking attempts. If Facebook sees unusual activity on the account (ex: a login which is usually coming from Boston comes from Japan in the same day), they will suspend the account. In order to use the account again, the user must give backup information that Facebook has on file in order to prove maintain integrity, and the user is forced to reset the password.
Twiter does not have this. When thinking about this, it did not make sense for Twiter not to implement this security on the accounts. In profile settings in Twitter, there is a tab for mobile. This tab is for allowing or not allowing mobile alerts. Why not have the users enter in their cell phone number, but they can still have the option to not allow tweets on their mobile phone? This way, if there is unusual activity on their account, Twitter has their phone number and can at least send them a text message alerting the user. This way, the user can take appropriate actions in order to have Twitter suspend the account for their protection or let Twitter know everything is ok.
While the social network sites compete with each other to have the biggest user base, it would be beneficial if they all were mindful of security and implement it to however it may fit into the user experience they provide.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
NBC's Twitter being hacked is a reminder to verify info
Hackers are as diverse as the reasons and motives for why they hack in the first place. The consequences vary, but the one thing that they have in common is some form of destruction.
Today's hack of NBC's Twitter account brings about another consequence-confusion and fear. The United States has been on high alert since 9/11. This year's tenth anniversary is certainly no exception, especially with a new terror threat over the American people's heads. So today, when people read that planes hit Ground Zero, it looked legit. After all, it came from a mainstream news source. People are conditioned to believe anything from news because for years, they got it from TV or radio.
More people get their news online than ever before. While many just type in the usual urls of CNN or Fox news, many are getting their news source from Facebook or Twitter. Usually it is not a problem to not see the news anchor as news is read online like seeing it on TV. People assume it is someone from the news source if they see an update on Twitter or Facebook. In this case, it was not a legit source as the account was hacked in order to spread fear into millions of mourning people.
While the appropriate authorities go after hackers, cyber criminals, and to a growing extent, cyber terrorists, let's remember to use our own vigilance online. To the average person, this is called common sense (for those who still have it, that is).
Taking the false reports of a terrorist attack, for example, things like this can always be verified. There were other news sources besides NBC, so a smarter move would be to look on another news source. The greatest news with social media such as Twitter is that people can be contacted whether they are acquaintances in real life or not. So just ask! The worst thing to do is spread the information since rumors on Facebook and, to a greater extent, Twitter move at the speed of light!
Keep these tips in mind always when something alarming is read online. Til then, let's remember all the victims, firefighters, rescuers, and the people who fought the terrorists on Flight 93. Let's remember all the people who are hurting everyday. Let's not pay any mind to someone who would spread such atrocious rumors on this day especially.
Today's hack of NBC's Twitter account brings about another consequence-confusion and fear. The United States has been on high alert since 9/11. This year's tenth anniversary is certainly no exception, especially with a new terror threat over the American people's heads. So today, when people read that planes hit Ground Zero, it looked legit. After all, it came from a mainstream news source. People are conditioned to believe anything from news because for years, they got it from TV or radio.
More people get their news online than ever before. While many just type in the usual urls of CNN or Fox news, many are getting their news source from Facebook or Twitter. Usually it is not a problem to not see the news anchor as news is read online like seeing it on TV. People assume it is someone from the news source if they see an update on Twitter or Facebook. In this case, it was not a legit source as the account was hacked in order to spread fear into millions of mourning people.
While the appropriate authorities go after hackers, cyber criminals, and to a growing extent, cyber terrorists, let's remember to use our own vigilance online. To the average person, this is called common sense (for those who still have it, that is).
Taking the false reports of a terrorist attack, for example, things like this can always be verified. There were other news sources besides NBC, so a smarter move would be to look on another news source. The greatest news with social media such as Twitter is that people can be contacted whether they are acquaintances in real life or not. So just ask! The worst thing to do is spread the information since rumors on Facebook and, to a greater extent, Twitter move at the speed of light!
Keep these tips in mind always when something alarming is read online. Til then, let's remember all the victims, firefighters, rescuers, and the people who fought the terrorists on Flight 93. Let's remember all the people who are hurting everyday. Let's not pay any mind to someone who would spread such atrocious rumors on this day especially.
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