online security
William wrote to us this weekend to point out how little Microsoft does to fight phishing attacks on their hugely popular
Xbox LIVE network. It's unfortunate they don't take this sort of crime more seriously, since so many kids—who by all rights should have less experience with phishing—are on
Xbox LIVE. Below is what two different Xbox CSRs told William when he contacted them to complain about phishing attacks.
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badvertising
If you visited the
New York Times website last week, you may have been surprised to have your browsing interrupted by one of those scammy "we're scanning your computer for viruses OH NO YOU HAVE A VIRUS!" ads that overtake your window. Now
Microsoft has filed 5 lawsuits in an attempt to fight back against the jerks who may have been responsible for it, and certainly for other ads like it all over the web.
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phishing
DoomNasty tells us he's been hit three times in the past week with phishing attempts. The first two were text messages from Alarion Bank, asking him to call 1-877-240-6149 "to find out why my debit/atm card was blocked. I do not have an account, and Privacy Assist shows no account was created behind my back." The third was from 201-968-0007, but no message was left. He traced the number to Liquidity Solutions, Inc., who told him that "one of their numbers got hijacked and the hijacker is phishing for banking info."
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online security
If you have a PayPal or
eBay account, or use OpenID to login to participating sites, then for $5 you can add a second layer of security that is virtually impossible to break unless the thief physically locates you and steals a little plastic device. The
PayPal Security Key is a small, keychain-ready fob with a unique ID that's tied to your account. It generates a new six-digit code very 30 seconds, which you have to enter whenever you log in. The down side is you have to have your security key with you in order to read the code. But the benefits are huge: you basically have a 2nd password that changes 2,880 times
every day—and that isn't available anywhere online.
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online security
Stopbadware.org has just released its
"Trends in Badware 2007" report, a free overview of all the ways you and your computer can be slipped digital roofies while you're online looking at LOLpornography and doing your banking through Twitter. It's written in a deliberately non-technical style, so if you're put-off or intimidated by the Slashdot crowd, this is a great way to educate yourself or a naive loved one about the dangers of drive-by downloads, website hacking, and so on.
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Consumerist
online security
online security
BoingBoing has the 500 worst passwords. We'll sum it up: if your password is password, 123456, or 696969, say goodbye to your identity.
