[ISN] How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 04:51:57 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/

By Mat Honan
Gadget Lab
Wired.com
August 6, 2012

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my 
Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was 
compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic 
messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my 
hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, 
and MacBook.

In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained 
together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID 
account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to 
Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, 
it’s possible that none of this would have happened, because their 
ultimate goal was always to take over my Twitter account and wreak 
havoc. Lulz.

Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn’t have 
had to worry about losing more than a year’s worth of photos, covering 
the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and e-mails that I had 
stored in no other location.

Those security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them.

[...]
Received on Tue Aug 07 2012 - 02:51:57 PDT

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