And Your Password Is… Password

A report into the Top 10 passwords for 2008 puts ‘Password’ at the top of the list. It’s been in the top 5 for years - why? You would have thought that people would realise that if it (whatever it is) is worth protecting by a password then they would realise that it is of value to someone else.

‘But… it’s only my blog’ or ‘It’s just my social networking account’ or … there is an endless supply of excuses as to why people chose weak passwords - listen up, if it has a value to you, it has a value to someone else. So, now let’s play a game of ‘What If’… and this is what you need to do when setting a password (partner’s name, child’s name, pet’s name - they are all in the popular list - and easily guessable - by machine, don’t think that someone is typing them in, oh no, its all done by machine)… so what if someone gets onto your site and defaces it, perhaps posts objectionable content or pictures, perhaps emails all your friends and tells them that you hate them… it’s coming from your account, they will be impersonating you, how do they know it’s not you? How long will it take to repair the damage caused? Hopefully the picture is clearer now… so when you chose a password make it a strong one - put in a number or two, perhaps some punctuation and have it at least 8 characters long. That way someone won’t come along and hijack your account and maybe your reputation as well.

(Just so you know… the same goes for work passwords as well - many companies have policies and protection in place for work based passwords… and for good reason. Imagine if someone could impersonate you and therefore your company…)

July 11, 2008 | Filed Under security | 1 Comment 

Halt. Who Goes There?

Reputation - both made and lost in cyberspace. A man is suing a ‘friend’ for allegedly setting up a fake Facebook account with incorrect and damaging details on. Herein lies the problem - it is so easy to do. You don’t need any proof of identity to set up a web page on any of the social networking sites, so you can frame anyone and everyone if you really want to.

I have written before on whether you should or shouldn’t join social networking sites - if only to ensure that others can’t impersonate you. As well as on ither forms of impersonation on the Internet.  But… let’s face it, these things are popping up all over the place, OK, so there are a few really popular ones, but you could never cover them all. The problem is that a damaged reputation can takes years to recover if you are a company, and sometimes never recovers if you are an individual - as there is always a nagging doubt.

We don’t have any specific legislation to cover this issue and I’m not sure if any of the legislation we have that skirts the topic (impersonating others) can be brought to bear as it is not being done for personal gain. Perhaps liable - but then again the site is purporting to be ‘you’ rather than someone else saying defamatory things about you. I would welcome any other peoples thoughts in this rather grey area.

Perhaps it is time for social networking sites to grow up, after all their success is based on accuracy - the person you find, is the person you know. It looks like this is an other example supporting the decline in Implicit Trust.

July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Reputation | 2 Comments