What’s your password? Please email it to me today. Really? Would you really handover or tell a stranger your password? Of course not. Well, on TV last Wednesday, Magician Troy didn’t use magic, he just used a few really basic technologies on members of the public. Dare you to watch the program? You’ll either cry with laughter, or go quiet and be concerned about all the places you’ve logged onto ‘free Wi-Fi’. Intrigued? Go watch it.
So with Santa on his way, and new tech on its way into your home, it’s a good opportunity to remind your children about online safety. Do they know what location services are, or are they tweeting photos with GPS location embedded by default, showing your home location, or the location of their school or a grandparent’s house?
Does your husband or wife properly log off after online shopping? Do they have accounts with numerous online retailers, all with passwords as the name of your cat. Is ‘Tiddles’ mentioned on facebook or in a photo caption? Nice. Easy password to crack that one. We’ve done it at work. “My late grandad’s laptop is locked, can you help?” We’ll try. Turned it on. Password hint ‘cat’. A quick look on Facebook, boom, we’re in first time. Their son was really happy, as we didn’t have to reinstall windows and charge them for our time. Is your password “Tiddles” or similar? “monkey” is really popular. Anyone going to fess up to me that one is theirs? Suggest you change it.
Search online for “channel 4 troy cyber hijack”. You’ll be amazed at the people and what they gave over easily to Troy. He makes a really good point. You have to be really cautious. A bit cynical. A bit savvy. Somehow we’re all ‘teched up’ but seem to have deleted the ‘common sense’ chip from our brains.
By the way, please email me your password, I’m doing a survey of them. Honest.
Merry Cyber Christmas to you and your family. I hope 2016 is a wonderful year, and you stay cyber safe next year.