Gear Box Theory: June 2011

With Sony and other sites like LastPass still reeling from a string of hacker attacks, I thought this might be a good opportunity to talk online identity protection.

I already put in my two cents that anyone who spends a fair amount of time on the Web should have some kind of credit monitoring service. I still stand by this assertion. The service I use costs $9.99 per month. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the damage an identity thief can do.

But, getting off my soapbox about credit monitoring, there's a number of other tried-and-true ways to protect yourself online. Some you've heard of already, like make sure you change your passwords often and make your passwords hard to crack with a combination of uppercase/lowercase letters and numbers (and special characters, too, if the site allows them).

There are two "low-tech" methods to go a step even further:

Create a "Dumb" Credit Card - During one of the Buzz Out Loud podcasts on CNET, back in May, Brian Tong made mention of using a credit card not tied to a bank account when completing transactions online. This is a suggestion I've made before to friends and collegues in the past. It's a fairly simple way to go. You purchase a prepaid Visa wherever these are sold (I get them at the grocery store or the drugstore), and use this card to do shopping online. It's refillable without having a direct link to your bank account or a large credit balance, so if a hacker gets hold of this credit card number, they can only take a finite amount from you, plus some prepaid cards provide theft protection. The caveat here is that you need to pay attention to the fine print on the package so that you are aware of any maintenance fees you will be charged for using the prepaid card.

Use a Password Notebook - I know there are a lot of password locker sites out there, like LastPass, which allow you to input all of the various passwords you need to keep track of for the multitude of sites you belong to, shop on, or check your bank account with. Honestly, I don't use any of them. Perhaps I'm paranoid, but I'd like to avoid the inevitable hack in this case. And, you're only called paranoid until it actually happens. What I do is I keep a low-tech, paper notebook with all of my passwords. Only I know where it's kept, and unless someone physically broke into my house, no one else is getting it. You could argue that you need some passwords on the go, and of course, you should NEVER carry this notebook with you. My solution for this is, use the locker site for everything but your most sensitive passwords, like those to your bank accounts, and keep the real sensitive ones in the notebook at home. Besides, I'm a believer that these sites should never be accessed unless with a trusted (preferably a home-based), wired network.

Neither of these methods are entirely foolproof. There is not such thing as a 100% effective solution, just like there is no such thing as a 100% secure site. But, using these methods may save you from losing some or all of your identity, and your money, while online.

And, for anyone on the PSN who hasn't downloaded their free stuff as part of the Welcome Back package, I recommend you do so soon. The PlayStation Store has been up for almost a week now, so the 30-day clock on the package's availability is ticking down. I've heard some people complain that they've experienced trouble with downloading, due to the overload of network traffic, though, so consider yourself forewarned. You may have to try a couple times before it works completely.

Gear Box Theory

2011-06-08

Going Low-Tech to Protect Your Virtual Identity

2011-06-02

The GBT Store is Open