French President's Bank Account Hacked
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been posturing as an international leader during this time of global financial crisis, thieves have been raiding his online bank account, withdrawing small amounts over an extended period of time. Just goes to show that identity theft can happen to anyone, whether or not you're important enough to have people Photoshop your love handles away. For best protection, install and keep up to date a good security program, like ESET. Only log into your bank from the main URL, never click on a link in an email that appears to be from your financial institutions. Use usernames and passwords that are a string of random letters and numbers. Write them down and hide it in a secure place, not inside of a fresh hot pain au chocolat.
Sarkozy bank account raided in internet scam [Daily Telegraph] (Photo: malias)
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I hate the word "hacked" for something that was as simple as social engineering. Everyone uses it, but I really think it should be referred to as "phishing" or "stolen".
Hackers actually know something about computers, phishers and scammers don't.
Most of the article has nothing to do with the thefts. This is unfortunate since users are a major weakness in computer security, and any opportunity to educate folks should be taken. Thanks, Ben, for providing some needed advice.
It sounds like Sarkozy had the same problem as Gov. Palin when her Yahoo! email account was hacked-- that is, using easily-guessed passwords or "security question" answers.
Of course, the human brain isn't wired to remember strong passwords. Hopefully the financial industry will adopt some form of authentication that doesn't require a photographic memory. Token-based (possession of a physical object) or biometric authentication are promising fields.
It's kind of funny that this happened to him. Of course it's even more humorous that someone of his standing doesn't have better protection on his financial records and things like that.
"Use usernames and passwords that are a string of random letters and neighbors." Heh, I always use the neighbor's dogs as a password, not the neighbors themselves. They get peeved when I try and shove them into the computer...
Ha ha ha ha! These rich/famous people need to make more of an effort in protecting themselves. Password guessing is not hacking. It's funny.
' Use usernames and passwords that are a string of random letters and neighbors'
Letters and numbers?
Dude, why? I wouldn't hack Sarkozy's bank accounts. I would totally hack his personal email and make a pretty penny of the wifey's naked pics. Or maybe even be a classy dude and just save those for myself. Pass the baby wipes, kthxbai!
Before you place any financial information into a banking Web site, you should look for a number of visual clues, to make sure that you are on the actual Web page that you think you are. If you're US bank customer check if your bank accounts are insured. http://www.mybanktracker.com provides all information about your bank and bank products.
You'd think internet security would be a bigger issue when this stuff happens. Who knows how many bank accounts are victim to this thievery.