Was Dyn DNS Hacked?

Similar to the apparent re-hacking of Infonec, the lovely e-mail privacy service SneakeMail has again exposed another possible security breach.

The e-mail address I use on the Dyn service is unique and randomly generated. The only parties that have the address are myself and Dyn.

Today, I received a phishing message at that e-mail. How did the crooks get my address? You connect the dots!

I recommend that all users of Dyn change their passwords.

Was Infonec Hacked? (Again?)

Last year, I blogged about a possible hacking of Infonec.

Ken from Infonec management was nice enough to give us an update on the situation, and recommended that users update their password frequently.

After that incident, I changed the unique forwarding address for my Infonec account. The only parties that know this address are myself, Infonec and my mail-forwarding service.

This week, I received “Viagra” spam at this new unique address. How did spammers get the address? I think Infonec has some security holes. Again.

Lessons Learned:

1. Don’t use the same password across many sites. If just one site gets hacked, all of your accounts could be compromised.
2. Use a forwarding service like Sneakemail so you can cut off compromised addresses, and so spammers won’t get the e-mail addresses for your other accounts.

In the past, I spent thousands of dollars at Infonec. Still, I haven’t shopped there in years. The closing of their Mississauga branch and opening of a local NCIX sealed the deal. This kind of incident makes me less likely to shop at Infonec in the future.