October 8, 2009

Stolen passwords include Gmail & Yahoo! mail

The situation involving stolen Hotmail accounts & passwords that was revealed earlier has now extended to Gmail and Yahoo! mail. It’s strting to look like it’s been going on for w while and is basically a phishing attack, but on a scale never seen before.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/100609-gmail-yahoo-mail-join-hotmail.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_am_2009-10-07

The vendors seem to be reacting to it, but I leave it to your discretion as to whether or not you think it’s time to change your password. Everyone needs to remember to be very careful with giving out your password. Also, you need to practice “safe computing”. Don’t have trivial passwords and change them often. It’s a PITA (pain in the a$$), but it really is necessary….

I just saw an article on ZDNET about how weak passwords appear to be a major factor in the Hotmail fiasco. As an example, here are the 10 most common used passwords of the ones stolen and released:

  • 123456
  • 123456789
  • alejandra
  • 111111
  • alberto
  • tequiero
  • alejandro
  • 12345678
  • 1234567
  • estrella

I'm surprised that "QWERTY" wasn't on....

Bottom line, try and create passwords that aren't obvious....

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