Governing magazine has posted a great article, “Online at the Library” about how libraries are helping patrons without computer or Internet access still connect to online-only government services. Check it out!
(Thanks to Bob Walter at Pittsburg State University for posting this to KAN-LIB.)
Here’s even more information on the phishing scam previously posted on this blog. Brig McCoy posted the following on the KANLIB listserv, from Slashdot, but as some of this blog’s readers are not in Kansas, I thought it was still a good idea to repost his email here. Please read this to the end.
“It seems as if the massive phishing campaign reported yesterday was not specific to Hotmail, as was initially believed. According to a report by the BBC, many Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts have also been compromised. Earthlink, Comcast, and AOL were also affected. While the source of the latest attacks has not been determined, many are pointing to the same bug that claimed at least 10,000 passwords from Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft has done their part in blocking all known hijacked Hotmail accounts and created tools to help users who had lost control of their email. An analysis of the data from Hotmail showed the most common password among the compromised accounts to be ‘12345.’ On their end, Google responded to the attacks by forcing password resets on the affected accounts.”
Re-read that next-to-last sentence… a password of ‘12345′? Please use better passwords… take the first letters of a sentence, for instance.
Sigh. “
Remember the blog post several few months ago on the 500 worst passwords of all time and also mentioned at this year’s Tech Day during the Cloud Computing presentation? Now would be a very good time to check that list and if one or more of your passwords are found on that list, please change it/them now!
According BBC News, Lifehacker, and other sites, the password leakage may be more widespread than previously reported. Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, and Earthlink email accounts may have had usernames and passwords posted online, also. I would highly recommend you change your passwords on all your sites and consider using a different password for each site.
Most of us use the same password over and over again (I’m right there with you), and if one account is ever compromised, you risk all your accounts being compromised.
How can your account become compromised? The most common way is through a phishing scam (pronounced fishing). Common Craft has created a “Phishing Scam in Plain English” video, so you can see how phishing works. Also, see if you can detect different phishing scams through this online phishing quiz. As always contact your friendly NEKLS Tech Staff if you have any questions.
Sometime over this past weekend, several thousand Hotmail/MSN/Windows Live passwords were leaked online through a third-party. If you have an email account at one of these places, I’d highly recommend you go ahead and change your password. It appears most of the usernames whose passwords were posted online were in the A and B range, but it’s good practice to change your passwords frequently, anyway.
Does your library game? Have you signed up for the National Gaming Day?
According to Jenny Levine, there are “about 300 free games left for National Gaming Day 2009. has your library registered? http://bit.ly/ngd2009 #ngd2009″
The above link takes you to a survey about National Gaming Day, Saturday, November 14, 2009, sponsored by ALA: “ALA is coordinating its second annual National Gaming Day @ your library on November 14, 2009. There will lots of fun activities again, including a national video game tournament in which your players can compete against those in other libraries across the country. We’d love to have your library participate in whatever way works best for you. Please fill out this survey to add your library to the national list and map of participating libraries and request free donations.”
Check out the National Gaming Day website for more information.
The PLS Blog also has additional links, information and notes from the day.
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