Lately there have been a rash of very popular website databases getting hacked and having their troves of user id's and passwords plundered. I knew about this, my forebrain acknowledged it, but I didn't think much about it.
No, I didn't get hacked. I did read this article at ArsTechnica and it really opened my eyes about why these attacks are so important to you the individual. http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/08/passwords-under-assault/ For those that don't want to read the piece, think on this: The people that gleaned that information from those big sites (LinkedIn, Battle.Net, etc.) didn't just get your current userid/password. They contributed to a tool that can make cracking other existing sites that much quicker and easier. They added all those password possibilities to an ever-growing application whose sole purpose in life is to figure out what a given password is. The scary thing is these tools are now ubiquitous and drop dead simple to use. It won't be long before anyone with even a passing interest of getting to your personal information, for whatever reason, will have a quick and easy way of doing just that. Its a big deal. Change your passwords. Make them secure and different per site. If you can, get a good password manager. I'm using LastPass and I really like it. /cue "The More You Know" music -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Unique Geek" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/theuniquegeek/-/KSknjRJQzGAJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek?hl=en.
