Matt Honan’s articles in wired magazine about hacking opened my eyes to the fact that hacking can happen to anyone, and that I need to be more careful with my personal information online. The Hackers were able to break into many of Honan’s systems by knowing the last four digits of his credit card, and his address. They found bits and pieces of his information from various sites, put them together and successfully accessed many of his personal accounts.

In talking to some of my friends and family, it seems to me, most people never even stop to consider the reality that they could be hacked, or how much of an impact it would have on them. I know prior to reading this article I never thought twice about getting hacked. Like many people, I try to use as few passwords as possible so there is less chance that I forget my login information. I have three base passwords, and occasionally use variations of them depending on the requirements of the site I am making an account for.

It would be one thing, if Mr. Honan was hacked because he was using some sketchy website with poor security, but that was not the case. The sites, hackers pulled his information off of are well known, and have excellent reputations.