This reader mocked Heartbleed, posted his passwords online. Guess what happened next.
(Paramount/CBS Television)
Here’s a lesson in online security: Passwords are important. They keep your information safe. Crucially, they also prevent other people from impersonating you.
Unfortunately, one of The Switch’s readers learned that the hard way. On a story explaining how the Heartbleed bug could slow down the Internet, a commenter scoffed at the “Heartbleed thingamajig,” arguing that the Internet’s handwringing over security was mostly overwrought:
I couldn’t give a flying fig about the Heartbleed thingamajig. Two years already the thing has been running loose … and not a word of someone crying over its damage. Say … does anyone really know its origin? Russian crackers? Seattle high-schoolers? the NSA? Yahoo’s marketing department?
The reader went on to post the two passwords he uses on a regular basis across all of his main accounts, inviting hackers to
read all the eMail I have. Sneak into my WaPo, NYT or CNN accounts and go crazy making comments in my name. Break-into my Facebook or Twitter profiles and change my hometown to Gas City Indiana, swap-out my avatar with a picture of your nads, make friends with people I don’t know.
Several other readers tried to point out how dangerous this was…
