Of course internet security is important. I'm not arguing that at all (I do believe I mentioned that in my original rant?). But it amazes me how many people will lecture this stuff yet overlook the fact that the biggest weakspot in any account is the security question. Make your password as convoluted as you like, someone is still going to get into your account if the answer of your password reset security question is something A) easy to guess, B) common knowledge to your friends/family/fandom buddies or C) easy to look up on that myspace profile you forgot you had.
More and more websites are finally getting this and changing the way these systems work (thank god) but all it takes is someone getting into your main email address through that back door and you'll have a whole lot of mess to clean up. And believe me, you don't have to be a talented hacker to manage it.
So--Moral of the story: Use the security question field like another password. Pick a random question and stick another password format jumble of letters and numbers in there. That's one of the most basic and probably most important ways to protect yourself that no one ever talks about.
Of course internet security is important. I'm not arguing that at all (I do believe I mentioned that in my original rant?). But it amazes me how many people will lecture this stuff yet overlook the fact that the biggest weakspot in any account is the security question. Make your password as convoluted as you like, someone is still going to get into your account if the answer of your password reset security question is something A) easy to guess, B) common knowledge to your friends/family/fandom buddies or C) easy to look up on that myspace profile you forgot you had.
More and more websites are finally getting this and changing the way these systems work (thank god) but all it takes is someone getting into your main email address through that back door and you'll have a whole lot of mess to clean up. And believe me, you don't have to be a talented hacker to manage it.
So--Moral of the story: Use the security question field like another password. Pick a random question and stick another password format jumble of letters and numbers in there. That's one of the most basic and probably most important ways to protect yourself that no one ever talks about.