BeerBorg

By now everyone has seen (and if you're like many you've SEEN) the celebrity nude photos that got "hacked". Everyone rushed to blame Apple, and then it came out that it appears that in every case the celebrity was hacked because their "secret question" answers were easy to figure out. Apple's fault may only be that they allowed too many retries.

So what does this mean for you - The Borg - who "innocently" take naked pictures on their phones, tablets, cameras without having enough brains to realize that your automatic backup puts them into the "cloud". Well, beside telling you that you shouldn't take naked pictures (Inkleg), and that you should consider whether you want to backup things to the cloud, it tells you something else.

Did you ever realize that the secret questions on many sites are identical? "What is the name of the city in which you were born?". "Where did you meet your spouse?". And, if you're famous (or infamous - Inkleg), then many people know these answers. In addition, if one site gets hacked, your secret answers MAY be exposed, and if you answer the same on every site then you just opened yourself up for problems.

Solution?

- Have a different password for every site. Make it long, make it complicated and not based on anything, add in special characters and symbols if allowed.
- Do NOT answer the secret questions correctly. Make up answers that are nonsensical. Example - "What is the name of the city in which you were born?" Answer - flugenhoffer42% "What is your favorite color?" Answer - qwroty4@3
- Use 2-step authentication wherever you can, which means that when you log in from an unknown device (new phone, new computer, public computer, hacker) it sends a code to a known device or a known email address that you have to enter.

And for crying out loud - stop taking naked pictures (Inkleg).

I thank Inkleg for allowing me to poke fun at him, not that I asked...

Those are all great suggestions, but...
If you use nonsensical replies, and have numerous passwords, how do you remember them? Most of the Borg can't even remember their own birthdays (kidding) especially on brew day. And I for one, don't mind if my nude pictures go into the clouds. I still haven't figured out how to "attach" a polaroid to a net.

Yes, but once your reputations ruined you can live quite freely.

No problem with the poking Rick. If I can help others learn (right or wrong, good or bad) through my actions, then my job is done.

For those of you who don't like to read long explanations just get a ten year flip phone. With those you can't 1) take nude photos of your self, send tweets with embarrassing nude photos of yourself accidentally attached during campaign season, 3) text while driving if you are such a total complete moron that you would consider doing so.

I would have to think that the easiest way not to have nude photographs of yourself seen by everybody would be NOT to take nude photographs of yourself.

If you need to see yourself naked then go into the bathroom - at YOUR home! - and strip in front of the mirror.

DUH!

John Sand wrote:Those are all great suggestions, but...
If you use nonsensical replies, and have numerous passwords, how do you remember them? Most of the Borg can't even remember their own birthdays (kidding) especially on brew day. And I for one, don't mind if my nude pictures go into the clouds. I still haven't figured out how to "attach" a polaroid to a net.

Good question John. No, not the Polaroid question, that's moronic...

Here's what I do (and you all know that what I do is the RIGHT way...). I put them in a spreadsheet that is saved onto a thumb drive that is stored in my house. I print out the passwords and keep them in my desk. Whenever I need one, I look it up. So yes, if you break into my house, you could find the list - but the cameras took pictures of you for the police...

I do not store the spreadsheet on my computer.

Very good tips! I am still pretty skeptical of the "cloud" and have yet to fully utilize it.

As for the passwords, I store mine on my phone in a password manager app. You just have to remember one password, and store them in there. And, no, it doesn't store your passwords online, as I painstakingly had to remind myself when I got a new phone and had to transfer my passwords one by one.

Actually, taking a picture up your kilt is not the same as naked pictures I'm told. Live and learn...

Jim - I understand what you're saying. All I will say is BUT... Does Verizon/ATT backup your phone automatically? Do you have an antivirus program on your phone like Lookout, which has a feature that could be enabled that backs up your contacts and/or photos? Do you sync your phone with your PC, or with Google, and not realize you're transferring data files from one to another?

The other point - it's not just naked photos. How many of you use the same password on all sites (Mykilt09)? Or do stupid changes like "MykiltBankofAmerica" or "MykiltCitibank"? Or your birthday? Or use the same code for your ATM pin and bank passwords?

Even if you have great passwords, or store them like Jim does, if you answer the "secret questions" truthfully on all sites then you are exposing yourself (pun intended) that way - if they crack a site they use those answers to hack your other sites...

Chuck - we thank you for not taking nude pics of yourself...

Brewbirds wrote:For those of you who don't like to read long explanations just get a ten year flip phone. With those you can't 1) take nude photos of your self, send tweets with embarrassing nude photos of yourself accidentally attached during campaign season, 3) text while driving if you are such a total complete moron that you would consider doing so.

Way ahead of you BB, or behind everyone else. I have the requisite flip phone, and I often open it and say: "Kirk to Enterprise".

For passwords, I put a 'hint' in the name of the link in my Favorites/Bookmarks. For example:

Let's say I have a login at espn.com as crazyclimber@yahoo.com with a password of orange618. I have multiple email addresses that I use, and multiple passwords, but the only pwd with fruit in it is 'orange618'. So...when I save that link as a Favorite, I might name it: "ESPN.com (yahoo,fruit)"

This reminds me that my login ID for this site is my yahoo address, and it gives me a "hint" that makes remembering the password a piece of cake -- for me. But not for anyone else. To me, I see 'fruit' and think 'orange618'. But it means nothing to anyone else, should they happen see that Favorite stored on my PC.

It's not foolproof, because nothing is. But it's how I "document" my login credentials, without actually having them explicitly stored anywhere.

Poor Inkleg, he gets so much criticism just because of his nude photos (of his cat).

As for remembering all your passwords, I also use a password manager app on my iPhone (mSecure), so I only need to remember one password (the one to get into the app). The app also automatically backs up to a secure file on my home computer at regular intervals, so if I get a new phone, I can sync up my passwords to the new phone from the backup on my computer. It's a great app, and I have been using it for many years now.

I have several IT friends, and they all tell me LastPass.com is the only password manager they trust.

Chuck N wrote:I would have to think that the easiest way not to have nude photographs of yourself seen by everybody would be NOT to take nude photographs of yourself.

If you need to see yourself naked then go into the bathroom - at YOUR home! - and strip in front of the mirror.

DUH!

+1 Million and beyond. I just don't get it. This over priced/over payed spoiled brats do this stuff then it gets out?? Just what the flying heck do they expect? I mean, come on people! What happened to common sense?? Oh, I forgot, it ended when video killed the radio.

I don't care who/what a person is, any one that thinks they can put something on the internet, whether it be storage or pics or chat, what-ever and it be kept private needs to come to my place, I have some meds I can share with you.