Hackers Stop For Nobody
Some have the false premonition that celebrities and other “big players” are larger than life, and protected as such. Some would think that hackers and criminals would only prey on the average civilian, but this is not true. Celebrities represent credibility, and wealth. If a hacker were to gain access to a famous person’s credit card, you can be sure they would go to town with it, knowing the celebrity is rich. If a hacker simply wanted to get a message out, posing as a good speaker would be a good idea. These are often obviously fake though, and discredited quickly. If a hacker were to gain access to a celebrities e-mail account however, they would have access to the fan list millions long.
This has just recently happened. A Green Party representative Peter Ellis, recently had his e-mail hacked. The criminal got his password, and went on posing as Peter Ellis himself. He then sent out an e-mail requesting money from any of his supporters, saying that he was on a trip to help out his sick daughter, who needed money for an immediate medical procedure. Anyone who knew Ellis knew his daughter was only eight years old and in perfect health.
The e-mail was sent out to many of the people on Ellis’ contact list. It requested a loan of $1500 dollars be sent to a Belleville address. After Peter figured this out, he quickly called HotMail and had them deactivate his account. One of Peter’s friends tried to catch the crook by feigning interest, but no one knows if it led to an arrest.
Ellis said he thinks the account was hacked after he got an e-mail from what seemed like HotMail to confirm his account details. He provided them, thinking it was a legitimate request from the service. Ellis says that is the last time he gives information out online. He said the incident caused no harm to any of his fans, and that he has since activated a new account.
This goes to show, no one is safe. Many people don’t think anything of sending an e-mail full of information to what they think is their e-mail provider. The truth is, it is often not the service requesting it at all, and simply an impersonator trying to gain access to your account. Many online services will not ever ask for your information again, and they say if you are asked, not to give it out.
On the same note, do not keep all of your information saved on your computer. It takes a brazen hacker to ask you directly for it, but it only takes a coward to surreptitiously hack in. If a hacker hijacked your connection and your computer, if you save all of your information in word it would only take them a couple seconds to download all of it and instantly have access to your entire life. This is a favorite of identity thieves, and then they can effectively become you!
Ellis is a major public figure, but it makes no difference. Whether it is Tom Cruise or John Doe, everybody runs the same risk of identity theft and being hacked; the only variable is how you protect yourself.
Zach V. Says:
It is scary that even these celebs, who have all the money in the world, are being hit by these online crooks. Some of my friends who supported Ellis and received his weekly e-mails called and told me when we talked about his poor daughter and how they planned to send money and other help. Imagine if the account wasn’t set straight quick enough. Tons and tons of people would have sent their money to this criminal and Ellis would have been the one to take the fall for this inconsiderate crooks actions. You’d think with all of their money, they would be able to pay to have security experts watch and monitor their computer at all times. Maybe they do, but humans make errrors. This is why I leave my privacy concerns up to an anonymous proxy. Although they are operated and programmed by humans, a computer makes sure the encrpytion services are still running and monitors any intrusions that could be made. That is unneeded though, as I have had absolutely zero problems since I began using the proxy. I even stopped getting spam and phishing e-mails if that has any connection. If you are worried about security, celebrity or not, try using an anonymous proxy, and especially one with strong encryption services.