12 Character Super Passwords

The 12-character era of online security is upon us as summarized in this CNN.com article summarizing this published case study from the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

A quick search online let me find a whole list of 12 character words and I came up with this example, which I will never use, but it is an example of a 12 character, alphanumeric word with a special character:

Zygomorphi3$

Facebook location tool

Facebook has a lot of issues. I will try to organize them but I have a search feature for this Blog and you can search on terms like "Facebook" and I'll continue to try to keep the best keywords in the Title.

But regarding the Facebook location tool...Google did something like this previously.

George Orwell may be rolling in his grave but it may be from hysterical fits of laughter.

Now Facebook will show your friends where you (or your GPS Phone) are.

So if I'm your friend on Facebook and you send me an email I can use Google to find your house by your email and Facebook to see if you are there or maybe 100 miles away.

I have another post about this issue that you should look at as well.

Former identity thieves confess the tactics

If you have been in one of my trainings as far back as 2006, then you know we have discussed most of these already. But it is good to see these 26 Tips again and the 10 Online tips link is a good review as well:

13 Things An Identity Thief Won't Tell You

13 More Things An Identity Thief Won't Tell You

10 Ways to Protect Yourself Online

More records than people

I mentioned this recently at a speaking engagement so here is the documentation as promised.

There have now been more records compromised than there are people living in the country.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 06/10/10 at 13:52 UTC (EST+5) is

309,469,481

http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html

Scroll down to the bottom to get the current number of compromised records according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, today it is 355,868,866.

Chronology of Data Breaches

http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm#CP

Bank of America data stolen

Do you have a Bank of America account?

BofA call center worker pleads guilty to data theft

http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-06-07/bofa-call-center-worker-pleads-guilty-to-data-theft.html

AT&T iPad data breach

Well, this didn't take long to happen:

iPad owners' e-mail addresses exposed

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/06/ipad-owners-e-mail-addresses-exposed/1

You may have heard this from me 3 years ago

Interesting but not new news, I have probably already alerted your staff to this issue if I trained them in the last 3 years (I know we covered it in one of my most recent trainings and a single parent was shocked to learn of these issues):

Financial abuses of deadbeat parents

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For parents who've wrecked their own credit rating, cashing in on junior's clean financial history is increasingly tempting.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/08/pf/parents_financial_abuses/index.htm?hpt=C2