Revisit the basics
Posted by Trish Smith on July 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment 
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by Trish
Smith
As our clients and customers naturally become more computer savvy, we often assume that they know (and remember) the basic tenets of security, including good “password hygiene”: Ensure that your password is difficult to guess, that it is never given to an unauthorized party, and that it is changed on a regular basis. But something happened today that reminded me that even the more knowledgeable among us can forget to be cautious when we are online.
I was on Twitter this morning (my username there is @Astrogirl426, if you’d like to add me to your follower list) when I began seeing tweets about a new service called “Twitviewer”. This service offered to let Twitter users find out who had recently viewed their Twitter page. Curious, I clicked the link and was sent to the Twitviewer home page, where I was prompted to enter my Twitter username and password.
Hopefully, this is the point at which anyone with a moderate amount of experience online would stop and think, “Hmm, this might not be a great idea. Let me wait and see if this service turns out to be legit.” Let me state here that there ARE some legitimate Twitter services that require you to enter your username and password to access them (TwitPic is just one of several). However, a brand-new service that requires your login information should always be approached with caution – if for no other reason that to see if any reports of “suspicious activity” surface.
Unfortunately, over the next few hours I saw quite a few of the people I follow on Twitter using the service (I knew this because the service sends out an automatic tweet from the individual when they use it for the first time). Sure enough, later in the afternoon I began reading warnings from Twitter against giving Twitter login information to this service.
So what did I learn from this? What can YOU learn from this? That even as people become more sophisticated about computers in general, and security in specific, we need to revisit the basics with them from time to time to remind them that these lessons are still important, and still relevant. And if you were one of those who used the Twitviewer service – change your password!
Trish builds on over fifteen years of experience in areas such as community services, human resources, client support, public relations, and project management. She has worked with non-profits, consultant groups, IT companies, and clinicians to develop and implement systems that help them manage and grow their business more effectively and efficiently. A graduate of SUNY Albany, Trish’s Master’s in Social Welfare provides her the knowledge and experience to incorporate and consider the human element in all of her work.
