Is your online “life” safe?

A recent article at ABCNews.com paints a painful picture of security vunerabilities and loopholes that exist at places you’d least expect: Apple and Amazon.  In a bizarre turn of events, hackers are using antiquated technology (aka the ‘telephone’) to commit identity fraud and gain access to users’ account information.

According to the article, a hacker was able to get the billing address of a senior editor at Wired Magazine from public domain registration (another reason to have SPARKS! Domain Privacy!!) and use it to get his credit card number from Amazon.  With the address and last 4 digits of his credit card, the hackster was then able to get the login to the victim’s iCloud account – which was linked to his Google account – which was linked to his Twitter account – and the rest was history.  In a matter of minutes, tweets, emails, files, and family photos rained from the cloud like a derecho. 

This is a lesson.  And, like school, all lessons have homework. Business Insider offers tips on protecting your passwords.  If you do use cloud backup solutions, consider a local backup as well (that’s right – backup your backup).  Hard drive capacities are in the terrabytes now and available for a couple hundred bucks.  Finally, use caution when linking your online and social media accounts.  Although it is convenient to login to sites using your Facebook or Windows Live account, creating unique credentials may save you something much more precious – your online ‘life’.