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Creatures of Habit

From Dr. Steven Brown | October 8th, 2009

The latest large scale phishing attacks not only show that people are still somewhat vulnerable to giving up personal information — they also show that we are creatures of habit. One reason why this attack was so large was that, as creatures of habit, we use the same password for multiple accounts. Once a password is figured out, all a hacker has to do is read your PC’s cookie file. Then they know the sites you’ve been on and can try logging into those sites as well. Changing/using different passwords is not difficult. There are a number of password generating software applications that you can use to create and store your passwords in an encrypted manner.
 
This attack has gotten so bad that even the FBI does not bank online. Read more about the attack in the New York Times.

I don’t necessarily think you need to go this far, but there are things you can do to better protect yourself.

 

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One Response to “Creatures of Habit”

  1. Mary Brown says:
    October 8th, 2009 at 11:57 am

    The hacker who stole the identity of Mrs. Bernanke soon regretted not being more careful in their choice of victim. Am betting these folks may also share that experience.

    I am a bit puzzled by the claim that the email looked like those typically sent by the bank. We often tell users that no reputable organization would send this kind of email in the first place. Are we off base with that advice?

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