Mike Says Meh The blog of Mike Kauspedas | Hosting by www.gearhost.com

PSA: Avoid MySpace Hacking

Grace was talking to me recently about people getting hacked on myspace. Well, let me clarify that, you weren't hacked you were hoodwinked, bamboozled, wamdogled! (I made that last one up). Or in plain English, you were tricked. Here is how.

One of your friends got tricked and posted a comment on your page with a link in it. You click the link which asks you log back into myspace. But do not be fooled! This is not the real myspace.

Looks pretty real huh? Check out a pic of the real myspace.

But take a closer look at the URL for the fake myspace. Notice anything odd?

Now that looks fishy. Well it is, but it’s actually phishy, as in phishing attempt which is a common way so called hackers get your username and password. They do the same for eBay, banks, email, etc. They send you to a website that looks just like the real thing, but when you enter in your username and password you are actually giving it to them. And your information is usually stored in a database and passed around like cheap hors d'oeuvre at a hackers party.

This is easy to stop. Don't click on links in your comments, don't re-enter your username and password, and always check the URL. For extra protection start using a web browser that already includes up to date phishing lists and anti-phishing technology such as Firefox. Plus Firefox is usually faster at displaying web pages and has tons of other useful features. Look at what Firefox had to say about fake myspace.

It’s not perfect, it never will be. Sometimes Firefox won't catch a phishing site, but most of the time it will. At least it’s a start. That isn't to say Internet Explorer (IE) doesn't sometimes catch them, its just that Firefox does it more often and in a more obvious way.

Get Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

I'm posting this as a nice Public Service Announcement, but feel free to ask me questions anytime.