Cybersecurity Expert

The London Olympic 2012 Games has finally arrived, and will dominate media headlines around the world for the next couple of weeks. This is a great time for sports fans, but also a great time for firms to disclose data breaches. Yes, I know I'm being really cynical but let's see what breach notifications occur during this festival of sport.  As I write this post Google have just announced they are in breach of a UK Privacy agreement -  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19014206 , admitting to have not deleted personal data gathered as part of their Street View surveys. This personal data should of have been wiped over 18 months ago! But back to my main point with this post today, as with this awkward privacy announcement, the media coverage of it will be swiftly buried within the media's frenzy of Olympic headlines, hence why companies PR teams choose specific dates to publicly announce their data breaches. 

Hackers target online Email accounts for a reason, they know if they can 'own' a webmail account, they can access it from anywhere and at any time, to use it as a tool and to harvest information of value. Fraudsters will often rifle through compromised Email accounts looking for information which will grant them access to more lucrative web accounts. A quick search of pretty much any Email inbox reveals information about various online accounts used by the user, many of which will have potential fraudulent earning revenue to a hacker. Typically Emails containing information about e-commerce websites and online banking accounts will light up a hacker's eyes. In this post I'm going to explain typical techniques employed by online fraudsters, to highlight the vital importance of protecting your main Email account. No Account Username, No Problem As a security feature some website accounts don't use an Email address as a username, but invites account ho...