As well as raising issues about password security on Twitter, the incident also raises questions about the status of Anonymous.
The biggest danger, Cluley says, is poor password security on iPad devices which unfortunately for Apple, is also out of its control.
The director of digital engagement there said that they do nothing different from the private sector in terms of password security.
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Unfortunately for Weiner, the tweet in question proved to be his own, but the incident still set off a renewed vigilance around password security within the halls of Congress.
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Forget everything you've been taught about password security.
Another possibility is that because many sites begin as cash-strapped start-ups, for which implementing extra password security would take up valuable programming time, they skimp on it at the beginning and then never bother to change.
Each time users give out valuable information like birth dates or addresses, they could be providing hints about their password, security experts say.
So, PayPal has multiple levels of security that protect my password.
For best protection, Ozancin recommends two-factor authentication3: adding an additional security mechanism to the password one such as a smart card or an encryption key pair.
As a security person, I cannot bring myself to endorse writing down passwords, although it is probably better than having an obvious password (security people know how to check drawers and under keyboards).
But password laxity imposes costs even on sites with good security, since people often use the same password for several different places.
David Kernell guessed the answers to Ms Palin's security questions and reset her password, prosecutors said.
Typically they ask the recipient to supply confidential information, like a username, password, social security number, or credit card number.
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It joins other account-recovery features such as the ubiquitous "forgot my password" and security questions, as well as less conventional methods, like identifying friends' faces in pictures or recovering passwords via text message.
Totzke advises all smartphone users to enable a password, quickly download security updates from their phones operator system and carefully consider the source of any applications they download.
While this is no doubt more hassle than just using just the username and password, it dramatically improves account security.
Strict security measures at the Postal Service required regular password changes and forced users to select nonobvious passwords, which are harder to remember.
Many of the world's banks require customers to log in to online banking by using a small security device to generate a one-off password.
In the future, it may also offer an API that allows firms to check leaked usernames from other domains, too, a trick that would avoid security breaches resulting from victims who use the same password or other credentials across multiple sites.
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Checking my email on my phone I found two messages from Twitter - each telling me that my password had been reset "as a precautionary security measure".
Chaney admitted he hacked into the personal emails of his targets by clicking on the "forgot password" feature of their accounts and answering security questions by using publicly available information about celebrities that he found on the internet.
To cope with managing these accounts, many users recycle the same password across multiple sites, and jeopardize their online security.
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After entering the target email address in the password reset form you can then select to answer security questions to validate your identity.
Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) security expert Jesper Johansson says one of the prime directives of password picking--don't write it down--forces users to choose simple and insecure words, since that's all they can remember.
While considerably more secure than typical static username and password log-in systems, many people find using security tokens cumbersome given the need to keep it with them in order to use online banking.
Evernote's massive password reset last week was the most recent demonstration of leaky security around consumer locks and keys.
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Also, more than three of every 10 smartphone users have no password on their device according to a global survey by Web security firm McAfee.
When Bank of America ran a focus group, nearly all participants said that one security measure they weren't willing to put up with was another password.
Which means someone has got hold of both a username and password of an account holder, and been able to circumnavigate the security that prevents an outsider being able to change such details.
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Few security practices are as problematic as that nasty old string of bits known as a password.
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