Hey Friends,

Just a quick email this week due to being busy preparing for the new academic semester.

I thought I would share a couple of interesting articles relating to a recent topic we explored, namely passwords and authentication.

You would think the president of the United States would be very mindful of security and protecting his online activities. Well, this may not be the case after all. Hackers claim to have (almost) breached Donald J. Trumps twitter account by using a password found in a previously leaked database (LinkedIn Hack). They successfully reengineered his hashed password and were only denied access to his account thanks to Twitters geo checking facility, which flagged up unusual login activity. And what password was he 'allegedly' using I hear you ask; well he clearly hadn't read my post about strong passwords as he selected to use "Yourefired" The teacher in me marks him down for using such a terrible password, but also for poor grammar. Donald ...... You missed an apostrophe..... You're is the contraction of "you are".

Secondly, I wonder how many people are still holding Zoom parties with friends and family? At the beginning of the lockdown my family, like many others, jumped on the 'Zoom bandwagon' and started holding a quiz every Friday, as a means of staying in contact (we still do!). In March the use of Zoom exploded, followed shortly by a wave of vulnerabilities and concerns about security. To be fair zoom were very quick to fix most of these, however, one significant feature was still missing: Two factor Authentication (2FA).

Thankfully, Zoom have recently announced that 2FA is now available for use on the platform. I spoke recently about the importance of 2FA, and why you should implement it for all your online interactions (where possible). Zoom now offers two options for using 2FA: a code sent via SMS or an app-based TOTP (Time-based one-time password). As per my article, I recommend using the second option in conjunction with an authentication app such as Authy. To enable 2FA on your Zoom account simply log into your Zoom Dashboard, choose Profile and turn on the “Two-factor Authentication” option. Follow the instructions to finish connecting your account to your authentication app, and you are now a much harder target for hackers!

Have a fantastic week

Chris

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Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Article Link to the article about Donald Trump

\\ Two Article Link to the Zoom article

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