Sony has been cracked. Multiple times. It seems Sony employs nerds who know nothing about security. Now, sonypictures.com has had a million username and passwords (and other information: DoB, e-mail) scooped up and made public.
Are you on that list?
The Playstation breaks would have been even more users. It hasn’t been posted public, are you on that list?
Are you an X-Factor wannabe? That database was also grabbed by the same crackers.
And these are just the public breaches. The real bad guys–the ones who want to steal money instead of making a political point–are breaking in quietly, grabbing passwords, and moving on to see what other doors these keys will open.
What is the lesson here? That companies have terrible security? Yes, they do. But that isn’t what should keep you up at night.
You should toss and turn if you are one of those people who reuse one password on multiple web sites. If one site is broken into, then the bad guys have the keys to any other sites you have given that same password to.
Don’t reuse passwords. Use a different password on every account you have. And how should you keep track of all these passwords? Write them down.
Yes. Write down your passwords. The advice about not writing down your password comes from way olden days when the number of computer accounts a person had was either zero or one. It is obsolete. Write down your passwords.
-kb, the Kent who used to use three different passwords for everything, until he discovered a machine on which he had an account, one he used the “good” password on, was broken into.
©2011 Kent Borg
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