security and pseudonymity, round two billion

[p_zeitgeist]

. . . yes, it's another boring post about something I didn't particularly want to be talking about. In this case, online security and hacking issues, brought to you by a combination of yesterday's high-profile and harrowing story by Matt Honan of how his Apple account was hacked, with disastrous and instantaneous consequences (read it if you haven

Comments

[semyaza]

The trouble with two-step identification is that some of us don't have mobiles so we couldn't make our accounts more 'secure' even if we wanted to. I've been very careful about not tying my real name into anything I do online (unless I can't avoid it, as with banking). I wouldn't want anyone to have my phone number. I use Gmail but only as a place for my two e-mail providers to forward my mail. All mail is backed up for a period of time in the other places. When I used Outlook Express, I kept a back-up (or two) of my e-mails on removable media. If I had my druthers i'd still be using OE. Beyond that - cloud computing makes me deeply uneasy and I'd never keep anything in the cloud that wasn't backed up in at least three ways elsewhere. I keep my profile as low as possible, and don't see what I can do apart from that. Fortunately, I was able to set up my multiple fake FBs before they got really anal about demanding a phone number. :D

[p_zeitgeist]

What, FB requires a phone number to set up an account now? That puts the final Seal of the Apocalypse on the whole thing: I will never do it.

Not that I wanted to, mind you. But I have a couple of very good friends who attempt to get me to do it periodically, reassuring me that I don't really and truly need to give them my offline identity, and like that. To which I have replied, basically, Who cares? I still can't trust them on privacy, and while I do what I can, I don't trust my technical abilities enough to be sure they wouldn't track me all over the internet. If they're demanding phone numbers now, that's the end of those conversations right there.

[semyaza]

No, they don't require it but when I was setting up multiple accounts there was a point where suspicion must have kicked in and they wouldn't let me create another without coughing up a number to prove that I was a 'real person'. But Gmail and FB like to bug me about a mobile number when I log in. I keep wondering if some day I'll be refused entry. :D Not that I spend time on FB more than once in a blue moon...

It amuses me when they tell me that I'll be more 'secure' if I give them a number. How does giving them added information about me make me secure? There's nothing on Gmail or FB that I give a damn about anyway.