Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
'These 9 biggest password mistakes will get you in trouble,' warns fraud expert and ex-con artist
Look around at the technology that surrounds you today — iPhones, online banking and shopping, Google, smart TVs — none of them were invented in the 1960s. Yet usernames and passwords, the most prevalent security mechanisms still used, were invented in 1963, more than half a century ago.
For more than 45 years, I’ve worked with, advised and consulted with the FBI and hundreds of financial institutions, corporations and government agencies around the world to help them in their fight against fraud.
But my expertise began more than 50 years ago, in an unusual way: I was one of the world’s most famous con artists. While I’m ashamed of what I did as a young man — cheating, stealing and, along the way, deceiving and hurting people — I was grateful for the opportunity to turn myself around.
My story, which is depicted in my 1980 memoir, “Catch Me If You Can,”gave me a wider audience to talk about identity theft protection — and one of the most important topics in fraud protection, which I discuss in my new book, “Scam Me If You Can,” is about passwords.