Please could I bend your ears
I have a lot of you lovely feckers on my e-mail contact list and I'm sure you all have a chunky address book too.
So Protect It! Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
In recent weeks, I have been receiving lots of SPAM mail from those of you who haven't changed your account password since you set up the account. I know - it's a pain thinking up some fresh new 'private' word which you will instantly forget because you let the browser sign you in 'automatically'.
But this is a serious issue - when a hacker gets a hold of your password - they can make a dog's dinner of your account - and it's legally your responsibility for whatever they get up to - in your name. So all those chain-mail letters begging you to
- free up locked away funds in Ghana-based banks,
- order all those 'member enhancing' drugs online,
- spend a week e-mailing the letter on to everyone in your address-book so you get a free camera/laptop/holiday in Florida
are YOUR Responsibility - even though it was a viral infection of your account that already sent a duplicate of itself to EVERYONE in your address-book already!!!!
Needless to say - the reason the net resources sometimes are so slow you could ride bare-ars*d to London faster than get an e-mail from someone in your own home-town is because of the infestation of SPAM mails making the rounds of the web time-and-time-again!!!
SAFE PRACTICE Recommendations are:
1] Change your password regularly - at least every three months, or if you do as much mailing as me - every month!!
2] Never use the same password a second time around - always start with a 'clean' new combination of Upper-case ; Lower-case and numbers - to construct your new password.
Very few special characters are allowed in addys - such as the underscore and the hyphen .
3] Try to think of something that is NOT:
- including your name/username/nickname/pet-name
- or has your date of birth included
- is obvious to someone who has slight or limited knowledge about your life and habits
If it's too relevant to yourself, others can use the information for nefarious purposes with little or nothing you can do about it.
Protect yourself
Protect your friends
Protect your database
Here Endeth the Lesson
