More Palin news

[smarriveurr]

Not that I'm political - but I am a techie. See, if you haven't heard yet, Sarah Palin just had her email account hacked. Not her official email, mind you. Her gov.palin YAHOO email account, the one it was speculated she used in part to avoid freedom of information laws. How did these criminal masterminds gain access to the candidate for First

Comments

[smarriveurr]

No-one expects the Alaskan Politician!

Her chief weapon is surprise... and fear.

[smarriveurr]

Yeah. Though I mainly stopped because, y'know, it was too accurate for comfort.

[smarriveurr]

Right... the "know something, know something else" approach.

Good thing they don't, y'know, send you a little usb keyfob with a constantly rotating PIN code or encryption key instead of the Secret Questions and registration. That'd be so confusing, eh?

[smarriveurr]

What I don't get is... I would totally buy it. I would pay them for it, at my local branch. I would give them more money to actually carry out the legally mandated system instead of their halfassed approach. Whyfor can I not give them more money to do their jobs right? I understand that most folk have no idea how silly this security is, and won't even wake up now that it's affecting a vice presidential candidate... but I'm rather clever, and I'd gladly pay for the option they don't realize they need...

[paleolithical]

My brain just did the equivalent of running a car full speed into a brick wall. You mean banks over there do not give its customers one time pin generators? And substitute crap that it not actually good enough to protect a facebook account

[smarriveurr]

I just set up my own online banking here, in fact. The process was:

Request to use online banking at local branch. Wait a week for a letter to tell me my account number (SSN), wait two more days for a seperate letter telling me my "password" (4 digit numeric). Log on using my social security no/tax id (which is theoretically "private" but written on five billion forms during your life time, available to your employer, people in payroll, etc, etc) as the account #, and a four digit pin code that was sent to me in the mail. That's right. Then I just had to enter my bank account number, and since it matched my ssn, I can start paying bills, etc, right away. I was then also able to create a text-name user account with a more secure password. Notice that I'm in and doing my banking with a few set digits that can be gotten out of my trash if I don't use a shredder, and 4 random digits. Admittedly, they at least have the good grace to lock the account if you get the login wrong 3 times

[smarriveurr]

Seriously. If World of Warcraft can secure your account with one for seven bucks, surely my bank could get me one for a tenner to supplement my password instead of "What is your name?","What is your quest?","What is your favorite color?"

Frankly, I wish it were those three challenge questions. I don't get why I can't create my own, either. I could come up with much more esoteric questions than "Where were you born?"