Monthly Archives: December 2010

Password Realization

Posted on by
Comments

Having posted at Lifehacker one single time, I was one of the many who had their login information made public as a result of the Gawker hacking.

Smartly, I always use unique and highly obscure (with numbers, symbols, caps, etc) passwords for my highly valuable accounts like banking and Google.

No so wisely, but for ease, I used the same e-mail and password for a lot of other sites and services.

I knew there would come a day that I’d have to fix this.

I got wind of the hack fairly early and prioritized and started changing all of the logins I use regularly and are of high value (like LinkedIn). I’ve even started to close accounts and services I never use anymore–although I don’t think this is 100% safe either as the info is probably never completely purged from their systems. I’ll probably re-prioritize and redo this again at some point.

This was a real eye opener. I probably have hundreds of accounts set up on sites I have long forgotten about, which I signed up out of curiosity and never went back. Of course those don’t have any critical info whatsoever, but still…

Wikileaks – What are we afraid of?

Posted on by
Comments

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Ok, that may be a misused quote from the Bible, but one that’s fitting in regards to the Wikileaks controversy.

  • What are we afraid of?
  • What lies are good lies?
  • Who decides what lies and secrets are good for us, and which ones aren’t?
  • Do you sleep better at night knowing you’ve been lied to?

I haven’t pored over every single document, rather I’ve been reading the headlines of what’s been leaked. Well, no real surprises. A lot of it is what was already suspected and now seemingly confirmed.

Gee wiz. China is an enemy of ours. Where o where will we get cheap virtually-enslaved labor produced goods from?

Gee wiz. Tons of money from Saudi Arabia funds terrorists. Where o where will we get our oil from?

Etc. etc. ec.

Most of the lies exposed were truths we tiptoe around in the name of diplomacy. Personally, I’d rather know the truth. Personally, I think it’s better that the affected parties know what we know. Personally, I’d rather the affected parties know that we ALL know now.

Regarding my question earlier about which lies/secrets are good for us or bad for us… I know there are many things that shouldn’t be made available to the public like secret weapons, military positions and plans, etc. From what I see, none of these leaks contain anything sensitive like that.

Supposedly some major US banks are the next “victims” of a future round of leaks. Ones that expose lies and corruption. Should we not know? I say yeah for sure. This too big to fail idea needs to end. If there were wrongdoings, the details should be made public and the perpetrators should be brought to justice. And we should learn so it never happens again–not brush it under the rug.

I don’t know where to draw the line on the leaks. Some indeed may be damaging. But from what it looks like, it’s a more embarrassing than damaging.