Livejournal security breach
LJ recently had a security breach briefly touched upon in news but not explained in detail.
For a three minute timeframe, LJ members logged in and saw another user's account details instead of their own. Locked posts and private messages for the other user account were viewable.
This is very worrisome, as even if the information was not able to be altered, people were able to access other users's full names, addresses, email addresses, and those of the user's friends if these were included in locked posts or private messages. This echoes the Artfire security breach.
I log on less during the day and doubt I was affected, as I did not see another account the times I've logged in. Needless to say, I've gone through my private messages and deleted anything with personal, identifying information for myself and others anyway. I'll keep any messages containing this to off LJ in the future.
My locked posts do not give any identifying information and they've become very pop culture or information oriented lately, so it wouldn't ruin my life if a stranger did access them.
This still makes me very uneasy, especially as I saw the CBC documentary Facebook Follies on Friday.
I recommend not posting anything too... personal on the internet, especially if it could drastically impact your life and if you're easily identified from the content. Locks and filters aren't fail safe and hackings, security breaches, and incidents of good old fashioned forgetfulness do happen.
For a three minute timeframe, LJ members logged in and saw another user's account details instead of their own. Locked posts and private messages for the other user account were viewable.
This is very worrisome, as even if the information was not able to be altered, people were able to access other users's full names, addresses, email addresses, and those of the user's friends if these were included in locked posts or private messages. This echoes the Artfire security breach.
I log on less during the day and doubt I was affected, as I did not see another account the times I've logged in. Needless to say, I've gone through my private messages and deleted anything with personal, identifying information for myself and others anyway. I'll keep any messages containing this to off LJ in the future.
My locked posts do not give any identifying information and they've become very pop culture or information oriented lately, so it wouldn't ruin my life if a stranger did access them.
This still makes me very uneasy, especially as I saw the CBC documentary Facebook Follies on Friday.
I recommend not posting anything too... personal on the internet, especially if it could drastically impact your life and if you're easily identified from the content. Locks and filters aren't fail safe and hackings, security breaches, and incidents of good old fashioned forgetfulness do happen.