It was about ten years ago today. Everything started out just like any other day. Millions of people cruised the internet conducting business, chatting with friends, checking on prescriptions, buying new clothes, bidding on auctions. Never once did they think about
the serious issue of security. It started pretty innocuously. Many people never thought about changing their usernames. Admin was one of the most common usernames to date. Why should it be a big deal as long as their passwords were secure, right?
People used the admin username for everything. Bank accounts, websites, all sorts of online transactions had this easy to remember name. What they didn’t count on were the hackers. No one thought about THOSE hackers. Not the ones who do it just so people will have to learn better security methods. Those hackers who actively seek to cause anarchistic issues. Soon, billions of account were compromised. With some simple coding the hackers found their way into people’s machines and began downloading cookies, saved passwords, and more.
They began using those hacked systems as zombies that would go out and infect others with malicious code. And then it happened. A sudden cascade and then it was gone. They crashed the net. There were riots. People panicked. Banks were rushed. The anarchist agenda had been achieved. All because of poor security. With a simple bit of added security, the fall of the internet could have been prevented.
Sound like a work of fiction? Think again. There are more improperly secured accounts than you might ever realize out there today. With just some simply coding these can be compromised. Do your part to help protect yourself and the net. Carefully choose your usernames and passwords. Make sure to vary your password and username. Add secondary verification if at all possible. Together we can avoid the death of the internet.