How Not to Become Mat Honan: A Short Primer on Online Security* from wired.com:
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. But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s.
from dow jones:
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) said it resolved a majority of the technical problems that plagued its Web services business last week and prompted many websites to either crash or perform slowly. Amazon, which rents Web services and storage to companies, suffered from a glitch in one of its data centers that caused many companies to move to contingency plans as they waited for a full recovery. The company provided short status updates on its website as the technical problems lingered on Thursday and Friday and through the weekend...
Amazon disclosed early Thursday it was experiencing "instance connectivity, latency and error rates" with one of its data centers in northern Virginia. Start-ups such as Foursquare, Quora and Reddit suffered from service problems last week related to Amazon's technical issues. Those three sites now appear to be operating regularly. Amazon's Web-based services are often listed as a model for other such offerings. It allows users to run programs and store information remotely over the Internet, accessing the applications over the so-called "cloud" and eliminating the cost of operating the equipment themselves...
While Amazon's cloud glitch has sparked outrage among customers, Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co., said it's "highly unlikely" this blemish will hurt overall demand for enterprise infrastructure from cloud computing customers. "If anything, this interruption stresses the need for redundant offerings and backup," he said. Disaster recovery services and companies that provide backup systems, like EMC Corp. (EMC) and Quantum Corp. (QTM) could experience a boost in demand, Marshall added. Amazon shares recently edged down 0.36% at $185.22. The stock is up 3% this year.
