Protect Your Online Identity

I attended DefCon 16 and one of the talks was titled, "Satan is on my friends list". Catchy title, huh! Anyway, I read a blog posting from Rich Mogull talking specifically about this talk. I didn't attend this particular session, but I've heard about this from another Security Podcast I listen to called Pauldotcom. There are known instances where someone signs up on some of these social networking sites and steals your identity.

If you think about it, if you are known in your community and you have built up a reputation, you don't want anyone to imitate your identity. A recommendation is to go out to sites like MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others I may not have mentioned, and sign up. You don't need to actually update the sites. Just get your name listed so nobody else can steal your online identity.

There are those with not so great intentions out there who will do this and take advantage of your reputation to possibly gain some information from unknowing people who think it's really you. So if you haven't already, go out and sign up. Protect yourself today.

Judge Lifts Gag Order on MIT Students - MBTA

A judge has lifted the gag order on the 3 MIT students who were to present their talk on hacking the CharlieTickets. There appeared to be other problems with physical security too. I wish I could have heard these guys give their talk at DefCon in Vegas. Oh well.

This doesn't mean that the MBTA isn't going to try and go after these guys with criminal charges. I'm sure it will be drawn out for sure. Click here, and here for links to this story. Have a great Hump Day tomorrow!

MBTA - DefCon Talk from MIT Students

I have attended DefCon the last two years. Most would find it lame and boring but those of us in the security end of the Internet look forward to all the information that can be learned over a weekend in Las Vegas. Last year, the Dateline NBC reporter was outed and it was really fun to watch. There are some great video shots on YouTube.

Sometimes vendors don't want you to release information. This year, there was a talk that was scheduled by three MIT students that was postponed due to a Federal court ordering them not to give the talk. The MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority).Those of us in attendance got to see their presentation slides that shows everything they did and what they observed.

OK, MBTA, you have a system that is broke. Hopefully you will do something about it. Come to think of it, all of the mass transit here in the US and probably abroad as well are broke too. For all of us, hopefully they will correct the problems that were discovered and will fix the broken system. Sometimes these vendors will do nothing. Kind of scary if you ask. me.

Stay safe and have a great week!