PokerCollectif emphasis on the security of your accounts. Each season or almost, we publish a horror story about someone who had not taken all the necessary precautions and has had to suffer the consequences! Some PokerCollectif members would also have stories of the kind to tell you.
The security of your accounts is all the more important that you are for most poker players, i.e. people with money online. Some have lots of money online. So take it seriously.
Last week, a journalist of 'Wired' has given its hacked iCloud and Twitter accounts, deleted Gmail mail and all his notebook data erased.
Mat Honan, journalist at Wired tells his story: "in the space of an hour, my digital life has been destroyed. I was hacked and then deleted my Gmail account. My Twitter account was also hacked and used to send racist and homophobic messages. "And the best for the end: someone has accessed my AppleID account to remove all data from my iPhone, my iPad and my MacBook remotely."
In response to this misfortune, Mat is said to be the main culprit for this story because it had not taken all the necessary precautions. It was enough for example for the pirate to have iCloud in handheld password to reset the password associated with this service like Gmail.
What is the most "funny" in this story, it is that certain information which are very important and confidential for some companies are made almost public by other companies. For example, to reset its iCloud account, hackers have needed some information with the last 4 digits of a credit card (secret information), but these last 4 digits are not secrets at Amazon.
By enabling the recovery of password on Gmail, Google indicates the attacker that a new password will be sent to an address in @me.com. It includes his victim has an account at Apple. To access this account, hacker knows he need the name of the e-mail address, the address of his victim and the last four digits of a credit card. The hacker did not address his victim, but a few mouse clicks enough it to find it.
Another difficulty; How to find the number of credit card of his victim? Nothing very complicated. A hacker called Amazon and pretends to Mat Honan by providing three information requested by the operator: the name of the account, his e-mail and billing address. It seeks to add a new credit card number to your Amazon account.
The hacker later recalled Amazon explaining that he forgot the e-mail address associated with his account. Amazon asks him his name, billing address and credit card number: there is more to give that added a few hours before. Amazon sends a new password on the email address of their choice. The hacker now has access to the Amazon of matte Honer account. It should be noted that Amazon displays the last four digits of credit cards on the personal account of its clients.
With all this information, it is now simple to go to Mat Honan from Apple and get new access. The fact hacker a again asks password Gmail, which arrives on the Apple account. It was then that the Honer Gmail account is deleted.
To protect your accounts, please follow our many tips! First, you should use Google Authenticator if it is not already selected. For more details on Google Authenticator and computer security, see our article on the subject: protect your accounts with Google Authenticator!
Discuss this news on PokerCollectif forums: A reporter from Wired is destroying its virtual life
