What would you do if you lost access to your devices such as computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone?
What would you do if you lost data such as family photos, financial information, sensitive documents on your devices?
What would you do to get them back?
What would you do to prevent this from happening?
What would you do if someone else gained unauthorized access to your accounts and began sending/publishing information as you?
This rare gem of a first-hand walkthrough by a technology journalist from 2012 gave me and my students much food for thought!
How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking
By Mat Honan 08.06.2012 08:01 PM
In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. Here's the story of exactly how my hackers created havoc by exploiting Apple and Amazon security flaws.
My students answered those questions in Discussion Thread 10. I hope they will share some of their answers in the comment section of this blog post :-)
Such a fascinating and insightful read- best piece of advice from the article to prevent potential account intrusions from happening is to not only backup your devices, but also ensure secondary-authentication logins.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning the length of the article seemed daunting, but it kept drawing me in. Two factor authentication is extremely important and so are offline backups. With my networking experience, I've learned how easy it can be to obtain data from any device connected to a network. It may just be paranoia for me, but I have 2 portable SSD hard drives where I store all of my important info; this way they can't be accessed remotely and there will be a minor digital footprint.
ReplyDeleteAt first glance, it did seem like a long read, but it really wasn't bad. I can only imagine the level of stress someone would feel from losing access to all of their devices. I feel like I am pretty tech-savvy, but I'm not sure where I would begin with such a loss. Saving things onto an external hard drive will definitely help with losing photos.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite possibly one of my biggest fears. I'm so glad that Mat was able to recover the photos of his daughter but the reason the hacker gave for doing all this just seems so dumb. To put someone through all this because of a twitter handle seems silly but if anything this article has taught me to back up my data and use google's two factor authentication feature.
ReplyDeleteMat Honan's experience was a good read. I practice some of the suggestions mentioned in Mat's story but I have learned that I cannot become complacent and improve and increase my level of security, continue backing up important information on a offline laptop, use multiple emails, and never disregard two-factor-authentication.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite an interesting read, learning how one thing led to another. This reminded me of the interest I have in ethical hacking. His story is a prime example of how important digital security is.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had someone gain access to my bank account, I reported it to the bank and closed my card right a way. After many phone calls to the bank to tell them that someone else was using my information. We got our money back within 3 weeks.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think I'd be initially devastated especially about my pictures but I know I'd eventually get over it. I have had my phone stolen and lost about 2 years of photos. including pictures of the last moments with my abuelita and it hurt but grieved and accepted my loss.
ReplyDelete