SSL certificate trust
Posted on May 3, 2010
Filed Under The Dangers | 1 Comment
We’ve had it drilled into us for years now. If you are buying something online, look for the visual indicator in your browser that tells you the connection is secure and encrypted. ‘The padlock icon’
In Safari it’s a padlock icon. In firefox it’s a blue bar. In Chrome it’s a yellow background. In Internet Explorer it’s a padlock icon.
The presence of a padlock icon or visual indicator should not instill ubiquitous trust however. It’s remarkably easy to obtain this visual indicator and extremely low cost. Read more
Traditional passwords and pins. A new solution?
Posted on May 2, 2010
Filed Under Improving Security | 1 Comment
At 3dpixel.net we have a customer who showed us an interesting new take on online security, more specifically in the field of user authentication.
End users today have a myriad of passwords and pin numbers to remember which each site seems to confuse. E.g. on some sites you have to use characters and numbers, some you have to put a minimum of 9 characters in etc.
pinoptic aims to solve this through the use of visual pictogram indicators that rotate each time a login is attempted. This means that effectively whilst the user still has the same password each time an attempt is made (through the use of a memorable sentence rather than a name or number), the entry field is not the same.
Social media and the dangers of revealing your location
Posted on May 2, 2010
Filed Under Social Media | Leave a Comment
We went on holiday last week. It was to Cyprus, thanks for asking, and yes we had a good time.
As many people do these days, I posted to twitter / facebook informing the social media world of my relative levels of inebriation and what I was doing that particular day.
My brother who was with us, received a phone call half way through the holiday from his neighbour informing him his house had been unfortunately burgled.
It got me thinking. Anyone who follows me on twitter would have known I was out of the country for a period of time. In fact anyone who had seen my public twitter page would have known I was away.
My address as a director of another company is easy to find via companies house.
The trend for geolocation services coupled with our public broadcasting of where we are is worrying indeed.
Forget passwords, you are the biggest threat to yourself
Posted on May 2, 2010
Filed Under The Dangers | Leave a Comment
Social Engineering, the art of obtaining details, maybe in part, from a target subject in order to impersonate or gain access to critical information facilitating fraudulent activity.
The stuff of cybercrime books and films? Think again. Let’s run through an example.
Your phone rings one evening from a ‘withheld’ or ‘unknown’ number.
Good evening Sir/Madam, this is Chris from <your electricity provider>, may I confirm your details before we proceed?
In the UK at least, the above question is fairly common if you receive a phone call from a utility or phone provider. As per the Data Protection Act the company in question needs to be sure they are talking to the correct person in order to discuss account information. Read more
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