Phishing and Password

I recently signed up an account at a social website and noticed the website includes a feature to automatically import your online address book to submit invite. It strikes me how easy it is to obtain other's password and personal information via sites like this.

Think about it, we rely on email and other online services so much in our lives. A typical person in his/her twenties has 1-2 email accounts, another couple of IM/blogging accounts. There are also online banking accounts, credit card accounts. If you have your own place, then you'd likely have a few online accouts to help you pay utility bills. So that's easily twenty or so accounts ranging across different level of security.

A lot of people are lousy with remembering passwords so they most likely use the same login ID and password across all different accounts. A lot of the banking websites utilize strong encryption such that it is difficult for hackers to steal passwords and other sensitive financial information. However, a lot of the virtual meeting sites do not provide strong encryption to protect your password. Here is the dangerous part, hackers can easily intercept your login ID and password for these meeting sites and eavesdrop on any banking/investment sites that you frequently visit. Then Cha-ching, it's not that difficult to pair up the two sets of information together and have access to your bankaccount.

You can call me paranoid, but I strongly believe that everyone should have dedicated login ID and password for each account that ties to one's financial information. The electronic world is not as safe as it seems.