[ale] Now this is just bloody frightening as all hell!

[Jim Kinney]

This is an opportunity for Linux systems to stand up and shine!

"Your data. Your system." By making it clear that Linux systems DON'T
REQUIRE "cloud accounts" it will go a long way to making people
comfortable with new technology. People convert from Windows to Mac
(total general suckage to total authoritarian suckage in my opinion)
so why not hammer the safety and security of Linux systems. Calling on
RedHat and Cannonical to do some advertising!

BTW: my Fedora 17 (and 16) desktop(s) periodically prompts me to do a
backup of my "stuff". It is a default install process.

On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Michael H. Warfield <mhw at wittsend.com> wrote:
> I'm sure a number of us are already aware of this incident.  It was even
> mentioned at last nights AUUG meeting about a reporter getting hacked
> and wiped back to the stone age.  Here's his report up on Wired from
> yesterday about what happened to him.  It contains a large number of
> lessons for us all, users and implementers of security systems alike!
> Yeah, this dude should NOT have done a whole LOT of things but...
> Amazon and Apple deserve fellowship positions in the halls of shame and
> stupidity for their systems.  As Shakespeare once wrote "he is the idol
> if idiot worshipers!"  Apple and Amazon BOTH here by qualify.
>
> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/all/
>
> Some choice comments...
>
> --
> “You honestly can get into any email associated with apple,” Phobia
> claimed in an e-mail. And while it’s work, that seems to be largely
> true.
> --
>
> --
> And it’s also worth noting that one wouldn’t have to call Amazon to pull
> this off. Your pizza guy could do the same thing, for example. If you
> have an AppleID, every time you call Pizza Hut, you’ve giving the
> 16-year-old on the other end of the line all he needs to take over your
> entire digital life.
> --
>
> Basically...  If you know the last 4 digits of the credit card number on
> the account (printed on every credit card receipt you throw out) and the
> billing address, you can own a person's Apple account...  Sigh...
>
> As FOR Amazon...  This is just incredibly lame!
>
> --
> First you call Amazon and tell them you are the account holder, and want
> to add a credit card number to the account. All you need is the name on
> the account, an associated e-mail address, and the billing address.
> Amazon then allows you to input a new credit card. (Wired used a bogus
> credit card number from a website that generates fake card numbers that
> conform with the industry’s published self-check algorithm.) Then you
> hang up.
>
> Next you call back, and tell Amazon that you’ve lost access to your
> account. Upon providing a name, billing address, and the new credit card
> number you gave the company on the prior call, Amazon will allow you to
> add a new e-mail address to the account. From here, you go to the Amazon
> website, and send a password reset to the new e-mail account. This
> allows you to see all the credit cards on file for the account — not the
> complete numbers, just the last four digits. But, as we know, Apple only
> needs those last four digits. We asked Amazon to comment on its security
> policy, but didn’t have anything to share by press time.
> --
>
> Really???  Yes the author was stupid in what he did.  But this just
> blows my mind on the part of those two companies!
>
> Regards,
> Mike
> --
> Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
>    /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
>    NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
>  PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>



-- 
--
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain

http://electjimkinney.org
http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/