Steal Everything - All Your Data Belongs To Me

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13213632

The devastating attack on the PlayStation Network (PSN) is yet another illustration of how technology-savvy criminals are determined to get their hands on our personal information.

As gamers rued the missed opportunity for online play over the holiday weekend, hackers were able to embark on an Easter hunt around the PSN, picking up small clues which could lead to a bigger prize: card fraud and identity theft.

The hack, which has led to the network being unavailable for over a week, has left observers wondering if a company as vast and seemingly advanced as Sony can get hit, who out there is safe?

The answer, according to experts, is no-one - and something similar will almost certainly happen again.

"We're moving into an era of 'steal everything'," said David Emm, a senior security researcher for Kaspersky Labs.

(continued)

Is a social network password sniffer in operation on your network?

[Pappa]

The real problem with this is users using the same password for their email account and Playstation account. People don't realise that they should really be using their most secure password for their email account because it is usually the key to everything else they do online. I don't agree with what one expert said on the news today about using a different password for every account login, because people forget them and write them down. But everyone should have at least 2 or 3 different security levels they use and a different password for each, saving one password for their most secure financial stuff and certainly a unique one for their email.

[Seth]

The real problem is that people put confidential banking and identity data on computers attached to the Internet.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the Internet is "safe." If you don't want to chance it being stolen, don't put it on a connected computer.

[Atheist-Lite]

The real problem is that people put confidential banking and identity data on computers attached to the Internet.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the Internet is "safe." If you don't want to chance it being stolen, don't put it on a connected computer.

Can you imagine how demented modern day capatalism would become if everyone was doing that?

[AshtonBlack]

I have to remember, just for work, approximately 10, 9-15 character random alphanumerics. These change once a month.

For home I have a password 'word' then a number, eg:

<word> 1 = PSN
<word> 2 = Amazon
<word> 3 = ebay

etc etc.

I have a book where I write the numbers and the sites down but never the word. That is enough security for me.

[Atheist-Lite]

I have to remember, just for work, approximately 10, 9-15 character random alphanumerics. These change once a month.

For home I have a password 'word' then a number, eg:

<word> 1 = PSN
<word> 2 = Amazon
<word> 3 = ebay

etc etc.

I have a book where I write the numbers and the sites down but never the word. That is enough security for me.

Twenty years ago that's the kind of paranoid encryption that was only reserved for ICBM launch sequences. Funny how times change isn't it?

[Animavore]

This is why I would just simply NEVER use a credit/debit card over the net. It's pre-paid cards only for me. I don't trust it.
Better to be paranoid than sorry.

[Aos Si]

The real problem is that people put confidential banking and identity data on computers attached to the Internet.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the Internet is "safe." If you don't want to chance it being stolen, don't put it on a connected computer.

Tin foil hat time.

Including of course any interaction that isn't made face to face with your bank and in hard cash, so every chip and pin, ever swiped card is about as safe as it gets on line.

Since everything you own is probably managed by the bank, or is at some time unless you pay for it in cash your employer gave you directly you have to just hope you are too small a target to get hit.

[AshtonBlack]

This is why I would just simply NEVER use a credit/debit card over the net. It's pre-paid cards only for me. I don't trust it.
Better to be paranoid than sorry.

I have two cards. One is only used on the net, with a max of £300. My "real" CC has a much larger limit.

[JimC]

I am only on the net to be in Ratz...

All else is folly...

[Azathoth]

I'm not that worried, credit cards are insured against online theft.

[Seth]

This is why I would just simply NEVER use a credit/debit card over the net. It's pre-paid cards only for me. I don't trust it.
Better to be paranoid than sorry.

I have a debit card with a pseudonym name on the account for all on-line purchases and transactions. The account is connected to my real bank account, but only within the bank's systems. I only keep about $20 in the account at any time. If I want to make an on-line purchase, I do a secure electronic transfer from another account to that one, then do the on-line transaction. (and yes, I know the transfer is not actually "secure," but it's far more secure than giving some Internet vendor debit-card access to my main account)

Even if the debit card information is stolen, there's nothing in the account to steal, and it's all but impossible to connect that pseudonym account to my actual account. I also never have anything shipped, sent or delivered to my actual home street address, which I never give out to anyone for any reason, period. I have all packages delivered to a friend's house a few blocks away.

[Seth]

The real problem is that people put confidential banking and identity data on computers attached to the Internet.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the Internet is "safe." If you don't want to chance it being stolen, don't put it on a connected computer.

Tin foil hat time.

Including of course any interaction that isn't made face to face with your bank and in hard cash, so every chip and pin, ever swiped card is about as safe as it gets on line.

Since everything you own is probably managed by the bank, or is at some time unless you pay for it in cash your employer gave you directly you have to just hope you are too small a target to get hit.

Only one thing I own is managed by a bank, and I'll be paying that off soon.

The point is to recognize that nothing is safe on-line and to make a rational risk assessment regarding whatever information you choose to put on the Internet for your convenience.

I, for example, never put my actual name or personal information on the Internet, ever. I use a pseudonym for all on-line activities, particularly commercial transactions, and I use a debit card in that name to pay for them.

[Aos Si]

The real problem is that people put confidential banking and identity data on computers attached to the Internet.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING on the Internet is "safe." If you don't want to chance it being stolen, don't put it on a connected computer.

Tin foil hat time.

Including of course any interaction that isn't made face to face with your bank and in hard cash, so every chip and pin, ever swiped card is about as safe as it gets on line.

Since everything you own is probably managed by the bank, or is at some time unless you pay for it in cash your employer gave you directly you have to just hope you are too small a target to get hit.

Only one thing I own is managed by a bank, and I'll be paying that off soon.

The point is to recognize that nothing is safe on-line and to make a rational risk assessment regarding whatever information you choose to put on the Internet for your convenience.

I, for example, never put my actual name or personal information on the Internet, ever. I use a pseudonym for all on-line activities, particularly commercial transactions, and I use a debit card in that name to pay for them.

Nothing is all that safe if you didn't pay with it in cold hard cash, they all go through the same computer systems. Everything you ever bought on credit or card or by debit is subject to the same fraud it is on line. The only difference is on line is a new type of fraud.

It's all as safe as it can be and you like me don't have enough money to really be ripped off unless you are stupid enough to fall afoul of criminals. For the most part, we are as safe as we were with money alone, only because its less likely we will get robbed now, the criminals have smartened up and realised white collar crime is now much easier to steal than your paper money from your pocket, and can bear less risk if they do so. Safe is of course in the eye of the beholder and the owner.

It goes without saying though that everything that ever went through your bank, is not any safer than it is on line. Everything that went from your employer to your pocket if you chose to be paid in hard cash, now is much safer, as long as you don't travel around rough neighbourhoods and flash your wealth at people by the way you look and or spend. Crimes change but the amount of theft never really does, it's like computer viruses you are always reacting to the criminal, it is seldom you are being proactive.

[egbert]

This is why I would just simply NEVER use a credit/debit card over the net. It's pre-paid cards only for me. I don't trust it.
Better to be paranoid than sorry.

[...]

Even if the debit card information is stolen, there's nothing in the account to steal, and it's all but impossible to connect that pseudonym account to my actual account. I also never have anything shipped, sent or delivered to my actual home street address, which I never give out to anyone for any reason, period. I have all packages delivered to a friend's house a few blocks away.

Great - better to have the "friend" get ripped off, burgled, or enjoy identity theft, eh? After all, what are friends for?