PSA: Social Engineering (Security) NATO & You

I read on ZDNet today, about a Social Engineering attack on NATO using Facebook, that story also referenced this link from The Guardian.

[Edited to add, see also this story on Sony dealing with Hacking problems & Security.]

I cover IT and related security issues from time to time, even though this is a Starcraft 2 blog, because I know IT security is a real issue for anyone that uses computers and the internet.

I have had personal identity information stolen a couple of times already, and I have friends that have had gaming accounts hacked.

Not to mention some professionals in Esports, Mrs. Violence & JP McDaniel to name two that I know for certain that have been hacked.

I felt this was worth mentioning, both as a reminder, but also to make people think.

According to ZDNet "senior British military officers, Defense Ministry officials, and other government officials" were fooled by this attack.

All of those people receive some training in the basics of information security, controlling access to information that is not just IT, yet they fell victim to this attack.

Makes me think that not only do people need to learn more about security, they also need to practice good security habits more often.

If your interested in learning more about IT Security click Security or Hacking, those Labels can also be found at left side of Blog in the Label Cloud.

Check Six,

Cliff

Tips & Tricks on gaming from Mrs. Violence

See her Facebook link, information VOD to follow :-)

Nerd News: Mrs. Violence gamertag hacked

I blog mainly RTS, but Kelly Kelley, aka Mrs. Violence, is one of the FPS pros I follow on twitter.

She had her gamertag hacked here is a snippet from http://www.analoghype.com/video-games/xbox-360-video-games/xbox-live-hackers-target-pro-gamers/ (click for full story):

How did Xbox try to help resolve the issue?
They claimed that due to the fact that someone hacked into my account, and actually stole money from me, I would have to wait at least 12 days for them to contact my bank and 100% guarantee my money back. I’m somewhat understanding about all of this, but the man says that there’s nothing he can do to get me my tag back until those 12 days were up. I even asked for something in return like a one month xbl Gold Card (which are free), and the man replied that there was nothing he could do in return. Now, even though the man knew exactly who I was in the gaming industry, I didn’t get any special treatment, knowing that this will effect my daily life of a pro gamer.

AFAIK nothing has been done about this yet.  I urge everyone to read the full story at AnalogHype and follow Mrs. Violence on Twitter for updates

More about the hacking in general http://www.analoghype.com/video-games/xbox-360-video-games/xbox-live-vulneribility-exposed-microsoft-ignored-the-truth/