November 14, 2008 at 12:55 am
We had an outside company evaluate our system security. To my surprise they did a search on Google and found a number of my posts (with my proper name) from years ago. Fortunately, the posts had nothing in them that was revealing about our hardware\software setup, but I'm thinking that changing one's name on a newsgroup to a moniker (such as "barkingdog") is wiser than I realized.
Using Google I was able to, using my name from the old Google posts, find the company I worked for (surprise to me, I never checked) so an outside hacker now knows the name of a dba at my company. A phone call to the company operator (we have a public phone number) may be revealing.
We now have policies that restrict us from revealing any hardware\software info unless it is to a known party. This includes people calling from "magazines" asking questions about our hardware\software environment in exchange for free subscriptions.
Can one be too paranoid? We recently updated our firewall and intruder-detection software\hardware. I can't believe the number of !_(&^)I%_*! that are nailing our public website daily looking for vulnerabilities. It's absolutely shocking -- we are a "hole in the wall company" that you probably have never heard of but the attacks are relentless. Now I know that I'm not paranoid; I wish I had changed by newsgroup name 20 years ago.
What are your thoughts on this?
barkingdog
November 14, 2008 at 7:24 pm
To me, it doesn't matter if you change your network handle or not... posting/publishing sensitive information "in the public domain" does. I've made no effort to hide who I am... but I don't post or publish any information that would ever be considered to be proprietary or personal (well, except for the fact that I'm prone to launching porkchops). 😛
In fact, being well published on the internet (especially on this fine site) using my name has gotten me many a job and is pretty much soley responsible for getting me my awesome current job... the manager's Googled me and, unbeknowst to me at the time, the interview was merely a formality to make sure that I wasn't packing heat. :hehe:
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 14, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Jeff,
A fantastic counter-perspective!
Thank you,
Barkingdog
November 17, 2008 at 6:21 pm
You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 18, 2008 at 8:50 am
I suppose it can work both ways
Personally I think Facebook profile is riskier than Google'ing and find one's posts in a SQL forum (which is related to one's job)
I have wondered many times whether to use my real name online or not
You can see my decision from my username clearly
It hasn't landed me a job yet, but I am hoping it doesn't hurt either
Other than the fact they may wonder - why does Jerry have so much time to reply & post..... mnnn, is he slacking
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