A California man was just sentenced to the maximum term of 4 years for hacking into 46 individuals' social media accounts in 17 different states. The judge gave him the max, but the Court cannot "un-ring the bell" and restore the victims' lost privacy. What is surprising is that he was not a sophisticated hacker and his attorney argued that he was "drunk" when he committed the hacking crimes. His victims had strong passwords, but he was able to hack in anyhow, even while allegedly drunk. What is most surprising is how easily he was able to do it!
Here's how he did it. He searched the internet and social media to find out mundane information like where the victims went to school, their pet's names, favorite color, etc. - the kind of information that is out there that people do not think to safeguard. Then he used the information in the "reset password" function that prompts for the user's "security questions" to hack in.
The lesson here is your "password" is only as strong as your "security questions" are!!! You may think you have a super strong password, but how easy is it for a criminal to get the answers to your security questions? Of course you want to have questions that you can remember the answer to, but ask yourself if the answers are floating around out there in the cyberspace "clouds" somewhere!
M. Brent Pickelsimer, Esq.
PICKELSIMER LAW OFFICES
Brent@PickelsimerLaw.Com (949) 371-6090
PickelsimerLaw.Wordpress.Com
Wills, Trusts, Probate and Related Litigation
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