Are you susceptible to hacking?
These days, most of us live our lives online: we pay our bills, juggle our checking and savings, email incessantly, shop for knickknacks on eBay, blog about our daily activities, and offer up personal information — hometown, email address, pet's name, favorite author, etc. — on social networking sites. These conveniences save us time, and make it easier to connect with others, but sometimes at a cost — email hacking has become a real threat (ahem, Sarah Palin), and it can lead to credit card theft, or even worst, identity theft.
Most of us don't think twice about how much of our personal information is out there. We're not scrupulous about protecting ourselves because maybe we think, "Why would a hacker want to hack me?" But hackers can be crafty — they mine for personal data in all sorts of places — online public records, your daughter's blog, your MySpace profile page. You can never be too careful.
Today, we'll talk to Herbert Thompson, chief security strategist for People Security, who recently wrote an article for Scientific American magazine called, "How I Stole Someone's Identity." He'll walk us through the anatomy of an email hack, and give us helpful tips on how to maintain our Internet hygiene and reduce our vulnerability to attack online. We'll also get the latest on how Sarah Palin's hackers got into her personal email account from Wired News reporter Kim Zetter.
If you've ever hacked someone's email, or been hacked, tell us your story.
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