Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [nafex] NAFEX security

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Alan Yelvington <alany@semparpac.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [nafex] NAFEX security
  • Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:20:19 -0500

Hello all,

I actually READ the monthly update that ibiblio.org sends out each month about the list, and I was unpleasantly surprised to see that the email includes both my email address and password.

I have professional experience in I.T. security, and this is a very old behavior that is considered a worst-practice by today's standards.

_I strongly recommend that all of you create a password that you use exclusively for ibiblio.org lists until they change their practice._

Very bad (and very smart) people sit on the Internet and harvest these kinds of emails, and it's not at all difficult to grab the entire batch in one swoop and harvest all of the email accounts and passwords.

_How many of you have one password for everything?_ I thought so...

The bottom line is that the bad guys can search for matches with vendors, and try out your NAFEX password to buy on your behalf. That, or they hijack your email account and use it to spam your friends.

It's that simple.

No sense having a complicated password when ibiblio.org emails it to the world.

I could go on about how it's also bad that ibiblio.org actually has access to your password, but why belabor the point...

_Anyway, change your password to something unique to NAFEX unless you're a risk taker_.

Al Yelvington
Russell, PA




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page