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Lie to Yourself for Better Security

by Smithee on July 17, 2009

in Privacy and Security

This week, TechCrunch made a big to-do by publishing internal Twitter business documents that they apparently received from an enterprising hacker. The access to multiple networks apparently began when the hacker accessed the GMail account of the wife of a co-founder.

If you, like Twitter employees, store any sensitive information in your Google Docs, or even have other people’s passwords hanging out in your GMail archive, then yes, it’s important to pick a unique password for different services, and make sure they’re all strong passwords. But that still leaves a hole in your security strategy: using the “forgot password?” feature in your Google Account.

1. Log into your Google Account settings (don’t worry, that link isn’t really for your account), and you’ll see an area for “Personal Settings”:

google personal settings

Click on “Change password recovery options”. This is the feature that lets you get your password back when you’ve forgotten it, or when someone who isn’t you wants to get at it.

2. Google will ask you to verify your password for added security.

3. On this screen, there’s an option for “Security Question”:

google security question

If someone that you don’t trust implicitly can guess the answer to the question you’ve chosen, you need to change this. Even if you’re not the spouse of the co-founder of the most popular and secretive company of the last few years. Sensitive personal data is retrieved through social engineering all the time, and if someone has access even just to your e-mail, you’re a prime candidate.

Better Than Your Old Phone Number

More people than I probably know about may have my old home phone number in an address book somewhere. I had that phone number for over 20 years. Anyone could have it. So, instead, I’m going to use the write my own question option:

google question

Here’s the novel part: come up with a fake answer. Even better: come up with an absurd answer to a reasonable question.

For example:

Question: What’s your husband’s mother’s name?

Answer: banana bread

This question/answer combination is memorable, provided that you love your mother-in-law’s banana bread. You know more than anybody about how your brain works, and how your brain will likely still be working in the future. Spend some time on it, and come up with something truly unique, but outwardly ridiculous at the same time.

For what it’s worth: no, I’m not a big fan of banana bread.

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Vacation vs. Social Networks

by Smithee on July 7, 2009

in Consumer

Summertime is traditionally when most people take their annual vacations, and since the social media explosion, more aspects of a given person’s vacation will end up as photos on Flickr, or “wish you were here” messages on Facebook.

I’m a big fan of openness (with the obvious exception of my use of a pseudonym on this site), and so I’m a little sad, though not surprised, to see at least one victim of a burglary who suspects his tweeting about being on vacation is the cause of his trouble.

The Trouble

“We had mentioned that we were going out of town for an extended period and even Twittered about the trip as we drove for three days,” he told an Arizona television station. While he was gone, video editing equipment was stolen from his home.

The Subtleties

My first reaction was to assume that the man in the story has some people following him on Twitter who aren’t exactly friendly. But then I remembered that anybody can do a search on Twitter for a phrase like “vacation” and find results like these:

Master Chase on vacation

Then, if you can cross-reference a likely victim with their address found online, and you have criminal tendencies, then you know which house to burglarize.

Additionally, many Twitter apps (and possibly for other services) have the option of finding your current location and looking nearby for specific criteria.

The Solution(s)

Take an inventory of which of your information can be found online easily. Some starting points:

  • Is your username the same as your real name?
  • Are you and your address listed in the phone book?
  • Does your wireless router know where it’s located? Does it broadcast that location?
  • Is your profile public? Do you want to keep it that way?
  • Are you on LinkedIn? How much of that profile is public?
  • and so on…

You may decide that a simple solution would be to keep the vacation secret until you get home, but remember, even if you decide to avoid the magic word “vacation” in your own online updates, your friends may inadvertently be helping potential burglars:

other vacation

Going on a trip? Keep tweets discreet, Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle, July 6, 2009

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Who Are These Strangers on Twitter?

by Smithee on June 5, 2009

in Consumer

In my non-Smithee life, I spend a lot of time on Twitter, although it’d be more accurate to say I spend a lot of time through Twitter. I’ve made some solid connections and had interesting conversations, seen a lot of funny videos and kept up with the news I care about.

Because my updates are not protected, anyone can start following me. For a while, I was ignoring the details of who was following me, figuring that even if it was a spammer, their goals wouldn’t be accomplished, because I’m not automatically interested in following someone who follows me.

The basic Twitter Spammer Marketing model goes like this: Follow everyone. Many of them will at least look at your profile page. Some of those many will follow you back.

However, I later found out that when enough users have blocked a spammer’s account, it can be suspended for suspicious activity and/or violating the terms of service. So I decided to do my part in helping identify the unruly mob. But I needed to come up with a system. I don’t want to block anyone unfairly.

None of the following are foolproof identifiers in their own right, but they’re all pretty strong evidence.

Way Too Many Links

Spammers want you to follow links, so they will post lots and lots of them. Many of them will point to the same place, even though the same link may have just been posted hours earlier. Consider this screenshot:

too many links

This person seriously wants you to visit those links about health shops and fragrances. Twitter is supposed to be a community, not a billboard.

Too Many Followees

Celebrities on Twitter will have thousands of followers and only a handful of people they are following, themselves. (Some celebrities will engender goodwill by following back all of their followers, but you know they’re not reading all those updates.)

Spammers, however, do the opposite. The number of people they’re following will usually be ten times larger than the number of people following them. Even if it’s not that high a ratio, when someone is following over 1,000 people, I get seriously suspicious.

Sometimes They’ll Just Tell You in the Bio

If the bio in the sidebar of a person’s profile uses any combination of “sell”, “marketing” and “online”, it’s probably a spammer.

selling on twitter

Not Enough Updates

Since the Spammer Marketing Model is just “Follow everyone”, they often forget to write anything. If you’re looking at an account that has just a few updates, and has existed longer than a week, it’s probably a spammer.

Conclusion

Granted, these tips don’t directly help you save money, or make money, but it is still about consumerism: if we can stop the spammers, marketing will be forced to grow up a little bit, and we can try having an adult conversation about the things we want to buy.

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Twitter Poll: Will You Be Spending More or Less Than Last Year on Gifts?

by Flexo on November 7, 2008

in Consumer

Every so often, I present a question to Twitter to get a feel for opinions and ideas of Consumerism Commentary fans, readers, and friends. Yesterday, I asked whether you plan on spending more or less this holiday season than you did last year on gifts and other holiday expenses. With a troubling economy that doesn’t seem to be improving any time soon — just look at today’s unemployment numbers — the prevailing thought is that people are tightening their belts.

Since Twitter restricts responses to only a sentence or two, I also invited people to respond to the poll on the Consumerism Commentary Community (C3), a bulletin board that’s slowly getting off the ground.

Here are some responses.

  • dreamscostmoney: Wife and I decided to stop celebrating christmas altogether from now on. So, decidedly less.
  • conedude13: le$$!! See what i did there? clever, eh? :P
  • FinanceGirl: Spending less. Same value of items for everyone but me & husband, but getting stuff at better discounts & using RX transfer GCs.
  • bargainr: more! stimulate that economy!
  • rthornton: Plan to spend a little less. Driven more by desire to give smaller, more meaningful gifts than by state of economy
  • ToughMoneyLove: Spending less
  • nodebtplan: less, but not because of the economy. By choice – we’re giving gifts of experiences (doing stuff together, coming home for Christmas)
  • dgstinner: I plan on spending about the same for gifts during this year’s holiday season.
  • NickRac: Less – ONLY because I don’t have the girlfriend anymore!
  • brokegrad: More, because I’ve had a job this year as opposed to being a broke grad student like I was last year.
  • BurgBarbL: Probably about the same; I’ve managed to keep my overall spending in check, so feel OK about gifts
  • Anonymous: Probably less. Even though I’m making more money this year, it isn’t going as far, and I’m making a bigger effort to limit spending.

Many of the respondents plan on spending less this year, but not necessarily due to the economy. “Bargainr” (Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity) is one of the few planning to spend more than last year, in what seems like an altrustic gesture to single-handedly save the retail economy.

On C3, That One Caveman says:

Much, much less, honestly. Our cash flow situation is pretty poor with all of our money going toward finishing our basement. I’ve allocated my blog’s income from the last month or so to cover at least a modest Christmas.

I consider those of us earning income from blogging, particularly as a “side stream,” pretty lucky in this economy. Without the income I earn from Consumerism Commentary and to a lesser extent a few other online projects, I would be in a very different financial situation.

Yana, a long-time Consumerism Commentary reader adds:

We’ll probably spend the same as last year, but we don’t do Christmas gift-giving or celebrations in general… I expect that due to the economy, there may be some especially great sales during or after the season. That could cause us to shop, if there is something we could use.

Stores are struggling in this economy, and some aren’t going to survive. Circuit City has already decided to close over 150 stores in the past week. I think there will be some great deals out there as stores work extra hard to get anyone to walk through the doors.

Follow me on Twitter to participate in future polls and join the Consumerism Commentary Community to discuss issues with other readers.

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