Twitter Hacked

twitter

The big news today for Twitter users is that there has been a major hacking attempt that may have seen around a quarter of a million accounts exposed.

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users. – Twitter Blog

Twitter realised that the hack would take more than 140 characters to explain, so they took to their blog to let us know that we needed to change passwords. I use the word ‘we’ because I was one of those 250 000 people that had their accounts compromised.

I must admit that when I got the email I was a little hesitant to follow the link they supplied to reset my password. Similar emails have been the way phishing scams have worked for years. This one looked real but just in case I tried to access Twitter only to find that I couldn’t log in. I then used the ‘Lost Password’ feature in Twitter to do my reset instead of following the link, just in case.

I’ll admit that I was pretty pleased with the way that Twitter moved swiftly to ensure the safety of their users. As well as dealing with the direct threat, they’ve given some helpful keys to ensuring safety online. Whether you’re using Twitter, Facebook or any other kind of online service, their advice is work checking out.

Though only a very small percentage of our users were potentially affected by this attack, we encourage all users to take this opportunity to ensure that they are following good password hygiene, on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet. Make sure you use a strong password – at least 10 (but more is better) characters and a mixture of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols – that you are not using for any other accounts or sites. Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your odds of being compromised. If you are not using good password hygiene, take a moment now to change your Twitter passwords. For more information about making your Twitter and other Internet accounts more secure, read our Help Center documentation or the FTC’s guide on passwords. – Twitter Blog

If you’re looking for a great way to create and manage secure passwords, I’d advise you to check out LastPass. I’ve found using LastPass to be easy, safe and helpful.

The LastPass team believes your online experience can be easier, faster and safer. Collectively we lose more than 10,300 hours per year retrieving lost passwords, making new ones or talking to call center representatives about them. And it gets much worse if a password is stolen and misused. We go online to connect with people, explore, shop and learn. We certainly don’t go online to fuss with passwords or risk our privacy, personal or financial information. Designed by web enthusiasts and skilled application developers, LastPass was created to make the online experience easier and safer for everyone.

By the way, if you’re not already following me on Twitter, you’ll find me here.



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Social Media Catching Workers

social-media

I was reading an article at News.com.au this morning titled Bosses catching employees out through Facebook and Twitter posts. It’s about employees getting caught out by their bosses when using social media.

There have been cases of people taking a sick day and then tweeting about it or saying something about what they’re doing on Facebook. Not a clever thing to do.

In 2010 a Port Macquarie barman who took two sick days around New Year’s Eve was sacked after his boss discovered a Facebook photo of him celebrating the occasion.

In 2008, 21-year-old Sydney call centre worker Kyle Doyle made headlines after his boss caught him bragging on Facebook about chucking a sickie, with an email exchange between the two going viral.

Social media has advanced so quickly that many people are still catching up with the full effects of sharing their life with the world.

“Back three or four years ago when social media wasn’t as prolific as it is now you’d likely be slapped on the wrist for an indiscretion, but people now don’t have the excuse to make mistakes because we’ve seen so many fails of people doing it, and companies are so much more aware of policies are being in place and training,” she said.

I’m wondering if you’ve ever been caught out with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other social media. Has a boss read something you’d rather they hadn’t or maybe a friend or family member discovered something about you through social media?

If you’re game, I’d love to hear your experiences. Maybe you’ve declined an invite from a friend only to have them find out the reason you gave them wasn’t quite true. Let me know if social media has brought you undone. I won’t tell anyone. I promise.



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Too Much Information?

Do you sometimes squirm a little when you see what someone has ‘shared’ online?

Maybe it’s a status update that would have been better shared with one or two people than with the whole world or a photo that really should never have been placed in public.

Since the meteoric rise of social networking there has been an equally sharp increase in the amount of information that people are sharing with everyone else on the planet.

Technology company Intel has produced the Mobile Technology Etiquette Study which suggests that we’re sharing way too much online.

According to a recent multi-country study commissioned by Intel Corporation and conducted by Ipsos Observer* on “Mobile Etiquette,” the majority of adults and teens around the world are sharing information about themselves online and feel better connected to family and friends because of it. However, the survey also revealed a perception of “oversharing,” with at least six out of 10 adults and teens saying they believe other people divulge too much information about themselves online, with Japan being the only exception.

It seems that we don’t understand or we just don’t care about the possible effects of sharing too much through networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the many other social platforms that now play a major part in opening our private lives to the public.

According to the latest Intel survey, approximately half of adults around the world feel overloaded by the amount of information people share online. Yet, adults and teens across the globe are sharing a wide variety of information online, with photos of themselves or people they know cited as one of the top things being shared. Other frequently shared items that adults are likely to share include: announcements of important life events in Australia and the United States; reviews and recommendations in China, France and Japan; sports information in Brazil; and current events in India and Indonesia.

While the survey revealed that digital sharing on mobile devices helps many people feel more connected to others, the tendency to share too much information can annoy others for various reasons. Adults and teens from each country had differing opinions on top digital sharing pet peeves. However, constant complaining, posting inappropriate photos, using profanity and sharing too many life details and personal information were prominent responses.

More than 85 percent of survey respondents across the globe wish people thought more about how others will perceive them when sharing information online. At least one-quarter of adults and one-third of teens around the world, with the exception of Japan and Indonesia, have been embarrassed by something they have done online. Many also admit to having a different personality online and to sharing false information online.

Have you been guilty of sharing too much? I do share a lot of stuff online but I still draw a line on many topics and situations. I realise that even those things that I share with a select group online can go well beyond any privacy settings I may have selected so I’m very careful with how much I send into cyberspace.

What kind of sharing makes you cringe? One of the big ones for me is the ‘fishing’ status. I’m sure you’ve seen them. It’s when someone posts something like, “That’s it. I’ve had enough.” or, “I don’t care what she thinks.” or anything else that is designed to give just enough information to make others swarm in and say, “Are you alright honey?” If you need support, talk to a friend. Don’t go fishing for it online.

How about you? What do you think when friends overshare online?



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Send Me A Birthday Smile

I’m going to take a wild guess and suggest that while you may be kind enough to wish me a happy 48th birthday today, you’re unlikely to rush off to my Amazon Wish List to buy me everything my heart desires.

That’s why I’m going to make it easy on you and ask you to do a few things that will make my one day a year very special, while costing you ….. nothing. Well, maybe a little time but these ideas won’t put a dent in your wallet.

Like Me On Facebook

First of all, I’d love to connect with a lot more people on Facebook. I have a public Facebook page that makes that really easy. It’s what Facebook calls a ‘fan page’ but I’m not that much of an egotist that I want you to declare yourself as my ‘fan’. It’s simply just an easy way to share stuff on Facebook. Just head to my Facebook page and click ‘like’.

Share My Posts

Whenever you drop in to my blog, please, please, please feel free to use the little buttons at the bottom of each post to share my posts via Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg or Reddit. Hey, you can even click the email button to send a copy to your friends. When you share my posts in any, or all, of these wats, more people visit my blog and I smile a lot. Really I do. If you use StumbleUpon I would especially love you to Stumble my posts. You’re more than welcome to spend a few minutes going back over my recent posts and sharing a few.

Comment On My Posts

Don’t just think it …. say it. I love it when people leave comments on my posts. Your comments make me smile big time.

Thank You

So there you are. If you’d like to, and only if you’d like to, you can make me extra happy by folowing a few of the ideas above. Of course I won’t complain if you’d simply prefer to buy me everything on my Amazon Wish List but we both know that’s never going to happen.



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Are you exposing yourself online?

KeyboardThe sacking this week of comedian Catherine Deveny following a public outcry over her tasteless tweets during Australian television’s Logies award night has again highlighted the connection between our work life and our personal online life.

Deveny used to write a column for The Age newspaper but editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge was quoted as saying, “the views she has expressed recently on Twitter are not in keeping with the standards we set at The Age.”

Passing Notes

Whether someone who was employed to be controversial should have been sacked or not while being controversial remains up for debate but her defence that Twitter is like passing notes in class seemed a little odd to me. It’s been a long time since I went to school but I seem to remember that the idea of passing notes was that you wanted information to reach a specific and very narrow audience. If you wanted to share something with the whole class there was ‘news time’. When you wanted to communicate privately you resorted to small, scribbled notes.

Twitter is not like passing notes in class, or even telling news in class. It’s broadcasting your thoughts to the entire world in 140 characters or less.

What does your online presence reveal about you?

Are you guarded about what you put online? Do you play close attention to what others are posting about you?

Your next job or your chances of promotion may be hanging on how much of yourself you’ve exposed online. 70 percent of United States hiring managers in a recent study say they have rejected prospective employees based on what they found. That means that what you consider to be a private matter between you and your Facebook friends could end your hopes of furthering your career.

We could argue all day over whether it’s fair or not but the reality is your online reputation can have a dramatic effect on your real life future. You may have been very careful with what you’ve put online via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, your blog or whatever else you use online, but have your friends tagged you in their photo of that crazy night on the town? That image of you drunk and half dressed will be hard for a recruiter to ignore when they’re deciding if you’re a good fit for the job you want.

What’s put online, stays online.

A lot of people are of the misguided opinion that they can delete online material that casts them in a bad light. The sad fact is that there’s no delete button online. You can remove material but it’s sure to be cached and available somewhere. Removing it is still a good idea because it will make it harder for a prospective employer to find but a determined recruiter will know where to go snooping.

Research commissioned by Microsoft in December last year found that 79 percent of United States hiring managers and job recruiters they surveyed checked online information about job applicants. The interesting thing is just how deep their research goes. Check out the table below for a better understanding of what your potential boss is looking for online.

Who else is finding out about you?

While the Microsoft survey deals specifically with employers and recruiters, they’re certainly not the only people who can Google your online reputation.

You might think that your parents would never check up on what you’re doing online, and that may or may not be true, but your parents have friends who might.

A potential boyfriend, girlfriend or even a future spouse may take a dim view of you proudly describing your past ‘conquests’ online.

There are plenty of other people who may be seeking information about you. Don’t just assume it won’t happen to you. Nothing online is private. Don’t publish, or allow to be published, anything about you that you wouldn’t want splashed across the front page of the newspaper.

The other thing to consider is that identity theft is an ever increasing crime. Many identity thieves use material gained online to steal thousands of dollars from unsuspecting social networkers. I may say more on that at some time but for now a reminder that you should never accept a friend request from someone you don’t know, no matter how cute their profile photo looks.

What would I find out about you if I searched? Would there be cause for embarrassment? Do you need to spend a few hours undertaking some searching and editing?



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