Home / Blog
Written by: 1/10/2011 6:34 AM
Before I was initiated into the fascinating world of social engineering, I read an article highlighting how nothing you do online is private. The writer described in detail how she'd paid a small fee to an online advanced search site and was able to access all sorts of private information about her lawyer just by knowing his email address. She found pictures of him from his college days, a video from a New Year's Eve party, books he'd been browsing, a list of his favorite movies, and even the (semi-embarrassing) heath concerns that he had been researching.
I didn't save that article, so I don't know which it specifically referenced, but Spokeo.com is one such site. There, you can type in a name, email address or phone number and get a wealth of information about that person: demographics, hobbies, spouse, career. If you enter an email address that someone has attached to their Facebook or Twitter account, you can get status updates and tweets, even if you have those set to private. You can see pictures and videos, estimated wealth information, and lifestyle details. And in each section of the results page, there is a little button enticing one to SEE MORE.
What does this mean? Basically, if someone were willing to pay $35 - and let's face it, the person that would use this information against you and/or for his own profit would not hesitate to do so - he could get access to all sorts of personal details that may be useful if he were trying to scam you. Or scam someone into believing he knew you.
So where does that leave us, we honest World Wide Web denizens? Do we all unplug and go off the grid? Not likely. But we can't just turn a blind eye to what might be lurking out there, waiting to use our publicly available private info against us.
Education is the answer (after all, knowing is half the battle). There are some good tips out there, on password protection and how to stay sane in the face of a million passwords and a million hackers trying to get them.
Read more here: http://www.cio.com/article/650927/The_Day_of_the_Password_is_Done?page=1&taxonomyId=3089
0 comment(s) so far...