The Hacking of Matt Honan

A chilling story of how writer Matt Honan's digital world tumbled like a chain of dominoes when a hacker wanted to seize control of his Twitter account.  Matt is a writer for Wired Magazine who recently had his Google, Amazon, and Twitter accounts hijacked and all of the data on his iPad, iPhone, and Macbook erased. 

If Matt had put a better backup system in place he could have avoided losing all of his personal files.  His is still trying to recover photos of his daughter that were stored on his computer.  It is wise for everyone to have MULTIPLE backups of our personal files: more than one backup, in different places and on different media.   

More importantly, the story exposes the weaknesses of current Internet security protocols on major sites that we trust with our data and virtual lives and the fragility of these systems.  Better security comes with a cost, it becomes much less convenient for users to interact with web sites and services on a daily basis.

In a case like this, we see how critical and vital this security can be and how giving up a little bit of convenience goes a long way in keeping your digital life safe and secure.  

Mike Beeferman is a technology nerd and consultant at large in New York City and Brooklyn.  He even makes house calls.  

http://www.thetechguynyc.com