'Porn star name' Twitter game could lead to hacked accounts
There's a meme going around social networking site Twitter that asks users to key in the name of their first pet and the name of the street where they grew up, and the resulting combination will be their porn star name. While the names that have cropped up drew quite a few laughs and giggles from users ("Pichie Sugartowne," "Mingming Mindanao," "Bam Copper" and "Blackie Cattleya" are just some of the hilarious ones Tweeps have come up with), participants of the game may be unwittingly divulging sensitive information that unscrupulous individuals could use to break into their online accounts. The Twitter game, which had already caught on more than two years ago, could possibly trace its origins to a 2001 article on the literature and humor site McSweeny's. But since the Internet was still in its infantile stages at the time, the game didn't pose as much security risks to netizens as much as it does now. The hashtag #pornstarname which was used to track answers to the game have already gone up to Twitter's trending list, placing in third as of posting time and even reaching the top rank in the past days. In 2009 when the meme first gathered steam, IT security firm Sophos warned that by participating in the game, users are making it easy for identity thieves to mine information about them. "The problem is that many sites (such as web email providers) may ask you what the name of your first pet was if you ever forget your password and wish to reset it," Sophos said. If users think cybercriminals wouldn't go to such lengths just to break into their accounts, the security firm reminded users that famous personalities such as Sarah Palin, Paris Hilton and Salma Hayek "have all had their private email accounts broken into by hackers after they guessed their so-called secret answers." "In addition, just think of how many people use the name of their beloved pet labradoodle as their password for umpteen online accounts anyway," it added. To protect themselves, users should always be aware of the kind of information they divulge in public fora such as Twitter and other social networking sites, Sophos said. "The 10 seconds amusement you may get by telling people your porn star name isn't worth the potential months of anguish that successful identity theft might bring you," it stressed. It added that users must strengthen their passwords by using alphanumeric combinations and make sure that they don't use the same password across all their accounts. Identity theft, or when a person's confidential information is stolen for criminal use, is a growing global problem which victimizes an average of 11.7 individuals a year in the United States alone, according to security firm McAfee. In the Philippines, at least 10 Filipinos fall victim to sleuthing Web criminals a day, according to an earlier report on GMA News TV's State of the Nation. One of the more prominent victims of identity theft include that of Filipina model and blogger Kryz Uy, where an anonymous seller set up a fake account using her name to purportedly sell clothes; up to P8,000 was stolen from one of the criminal's victims. "Everyone thought that I was scamming these people so I had to clear my name. But then no matter how I tried to report it on Facebook, wala pa rin," said Uy. â RSJ, GMA News