Email Scam Reveals How Crummy Passwords Are

Simple precautions can keep info out of scammers' hands

(NEWSER) - Phishing scams are becoming a lot more sophisticated. Unwary Internet users can easily end up with their bank account and credit card details in the hands of crooks. CNET lists the best ways to avoid becoming a victim:

• Change passwords regularly. Experts recommend that passwords be changed every three months or so, and warn against using the same password for multiple sites.
• Click with caution. Any apparently legitimate email asking you to click a link to another site—especially if it mentions updating security information—could be from a rogue site. It's safer just to type in the URL yourself.

Operation may have thousands more; Microsoft investigating

(NEWSER) - Names and passwords for at least 10,000 compromised Hotmail email accounts were made public today, and Microsoft says it's investigating. A list of account names and passwords that was posted to a software development forum may only be a small part of the cache of stolen info—it consisted entirely of accounts that began with the letter A or B, the BBC reports. More»

An accused child pornographer has the right to keep his laptop password, and images, private

(NEWSER) - In what could turn out to be a landmark decision on computer privacy and Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination, a federal judge in Vermont has ruled that a man accused of transporting child pornography across the US border with Canada can’t be forced to turn over his laptop password to prosecutors, reports CNET. More»

Once again: 'Password' is not a good choice to beat hackers

(NEWSER) - Lots of people are still lousy at choosing computer passwords. Mashable picks up on the annual list of most-hacked passwords from SplashData. The usual suspects are still at the top:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon

From Facebook to bank accounts, online afterlife a thorny legal area

(NEWSER) - These days grieving relatives have a new problem to contend with: managing the Facebook, Flickr, and eBay accounts of the dead. As people trust ever more of their lives to the Internet, from email and online banking to identities on Second Life, very few have considered what exactly will happen to all that online data when they die, the Washington Post reports—and new businesses are popping up to help the heirs of the dearly departed access everything from password-protected photographs to money. More»