CST 373 Week 6

Scrapbook 6 - Forgotten Digital Accounts and Their Impact

"#91 The Russian Passenger" and "#93 Beware All" from, the podcast, Reply All of Gimlet Media (PDF archive of Episode #91 and Episode #93)

Summary

This story spans two episodes of Reply All. Alex Blumberg, the founder of Gimlet Media, had his Uber account hacked into, where rides were taken at his expense. When he tries to log into the Uber account, it acted as though his account never existed. They contact Uber and find that his credit card number also does not exist in their system. Over the course of two episodes, they follow through different theories on how the Uber account could have been hacked and when.

Spoilers ahead! They follow through theories of key loggers, malware, and hackers. Their search leads them through the dark web for data being sold from hacked accounts to see if there are traces of Alex's information. In the end, the Uber account was linked to an old, forgotten email (from a previous employer) and he had used the same password for all of his accounts. This old email and its password were sold on the dark web and those were the same credentials for his Uber account. The ultimate moral of the story was to have unique passwords for all accounts and it's helpful to keep them in a password manager, like KeePass or LastPass. (However, LastPass may not be great because your passwords are stored on their servers and vulnerable, like the information for the websites it stores on your behalf.)

Reason Chosen

I've been using a password manager for a while, but really haven't converted all of my accounts to the complicated and unique passwords that are recommended. I don't think I'm the worst with my passwords, but think there's room for improvement. It is a good reminder that we all have to take responsibility when it comes to the websites we're working with.

They mention the website haveibeenpwned.com in the podcast and explain how it uses the data leaked from data breaches to see if your email/username (and associated data) was compromised. Upon searching for my email on the website, I found that I had four cases of my information being distributed.

Ethical Implications and Personal and Social Values at Stake

Using the internet and creating accounts for oneself on the internet requires a certain level of responsibility, not only for ourselves but for our loved ones. It's important that we educate each other on the best practices when working in this space. The internet is no longer a place where we go to just converse with people from a distance. It's a place where we store medical and financial records, our memories, and random personal information. Knowing the best practices is important here. Because we're so connected, we make everyone else vulnerable too.

I know that I still have family members that use simple passwords for every website they use and they're the kind my co-workers would joke about (password is "password" kinds). I understand where they're coming from since creating, setting up, and logging into a password manager is a hassle. But as we store so much more information on the internet, we, as tech-savvy friends, are responsible for helping them understand the risks.

Source Credibility

Reply All is a podcast created by Gimlet Media, which was founded in 2015. Gimlet Media is focused on high-quality, well-researched podcasts. It was founded by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, who both have experience producing public radio shows.

Reply All is produced by Phia Bennin and hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman who all have backgrounds in public radio. For more information, see their team member page. The hosts also did an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) on Reddit two years ago.