I was unfortunately unable to make it to class today but luckily there are multiple readings to reflect on.

I found the articles a bit unsettling. I am not tech-savvy nor do I have the best memory so I tend not to regularly change my passwords or willingly make them very complex. It’s unnerving, to say the least how easy it is for hackers to gain access to my accounts. I guess I always had this image in my mind of hackers targeting a specific person; that’s not to say I wasn’t aware of the fact that companies are often targeted and thousands of people’s information is then stolen or leaked though. In fact I technically had a lot of my personal information compromised some years back; my stepfather works for the military and he was required to provide family members information to gain certain security clearances and that database was hacked (It may have actually been the Office of Personnel Management data breach we were linked to but I’m not sure). Nothing really happened though, at least not that I’m aware of, so it’s just one of those things that I push to the back of my mind.

Although I suppose this is also somewhat relevant given that it was recently released that the Russian’s did in fact hack the U.S. voting system (I didn’t procrastinate this bad on all of my blog posts, I swear; just this one because I didn’t make it to class this day). I don’t know if they were using the same kind of password hacking algorithms but it really does show how formidable hackers have become.

I’ve gone off on a tangent though, so back to the point. The Wired article gives an interesting, brief, history of passwords, followed by a statement that they are pretty much moot now. According to Honan, the author of the article, the idea of “strong passwords” is false; unless it is unimaginably long and random it really isn’t safe. He does provide some tips for better passwords though; for example, don’t reuse passwords, don’t fall for phishing scams, and don’t make your password something that’s easy to guess. None of those guarantee protection a hacker though. Goodin’s article for arsTechnica goes more into depth in regards to the process of hacking, or at the very least the technology used. I find it particularly discomforting that, with every batch of leaked passwords, the hacking algorithms are improved and refined. Especially given how much hacking has increased in recent years.

Technology is great. I’m the first to say how much I love my iPhone and Netflix. However it really has its downside. Before the internet there was no real plausible way to gather peoples information to this degree, to violate so many peoples privacy at once.