Whenever I sign up for something new and need to write in a password, I’ll ask myself, How can I be creative and still remember my password?
I have locked myself out of my phone because I forgot my new ‘special’ password. Google’s suggestions are just impossible to remember. And is it even safe to take Google’s suggestions?
Forbes reported that the top passwords as of today are “123456”, “qwerty”, “liverpool”, “blink182” and “superman”.
Some of you may be smiling as you read this because you see your password up there. Some of you may be afraid because you do not want anyone sneaking into your secret blogspot and reading all your deepest darkest secrets.
GOOD.
Because there are hackers everywhere.
The Red Cross is the latest victim of hacking.
On 8 May, the web developer of Red Cross found out that there had been unauthorised access to the volunteer recruitment part of the website.
The Red Cross immediately reported the discovery to the Personal Data Protection Commission and HSA.
The “name, contact number, email, declared blood type, preferred appointment date/time and preferred location for blood donations” of 4,297 volunteers were hacked.
The Red Cross says that they only announced this to the public eight days after the discovery of the hacking because it had to do proper investigation to assess the extent of the hack.
As a safety measure, the website has since been replaced with a temporary webpage with links to relevant websites.
In its statement, it said, “Preliminary findings show that a weak administrator password could have left the website vulnerable to the unauthorised access”.
External consultants are currently being engaged to do forensic investigations to find out what exactly caused the breach of security.
Now you know why I started off this article talking about password, eh?
Because if you’ve trouble trying to get a secure password, imagine how many web developers out there having the same problem.
Moving forward
Red Cross will be making sure those who were affected and partners of the organisation are informed.
It will also work together with experts to strengthen the protection of the website.
A Bit of History of Blood donation
Before we had syringes and tubes, blood donation was done by cutting one’s body and letting it flow then bandaging it up again. This process was called bloodletting. How scary is that! Boy, am I happy to be from the 21st century.
Thankfully, in 1914, with the advance in technology, storing blood became possible with the discovery of mixing sodium nitrate and blood.
While this breach of security is scary, I hope that it does not scare people away from donating blood. Every blood donation saves up to three lives. Let us not give up in doing good.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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