Skittles Just Social Engineered You
Many of you went to the Skittles site this morning after seeing all the #Skittles tweets.
Until just recently, as many of you already know, I was at a small startup data company. The minute I saw the form pop up at me that asked for my birthdate – I was like “Ah-Ha! Skittles is having a field day of data collection today!” Many of you just went ahead and entered in your date of birth like good sheep without thinking. No worries, we all have done that without thinking!
Don’t worry, I’m sure the company collecting the data is using it for honest purposes only. Maybe even making some money off the free data you just gave them. I thought I would just let you know that you fell for a very old school social engineering trick.
Many feel that passwords are your first line of defense in the world of data. Please keep in mind that social engineering was the main tool used by Kevin Mitnick who was caught and incarcerated for many years without due process.
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