Over the last 15 years, the Internet has become the dominant portal for media consumption for today’s generation. As this shift has occurred, intelligent commentators from the world of publishing, journalism, technology, business, and academia have brought forth many interesting and nuanced views on the scope of this change and its effect on modern culture. Recently, I came across two excellent articles that explored some of the most urgent and important issues of the Digital Age.

The first article, “Good Times,” written by Jessa Crispin for The Smart Set from Drexel University, explores the importance of being kind online. 

From the article:

“A common complaint about the Internet, whether it’s being leveled by a journalist who just lost his newspaper job or someone who found herself the target of online rage, is that it’s such a shallow, spiteful place. While it’s a ludicrous statement — the Internet is merely a medium, not anything homogeneous — the complaint is valid in large, and vocal, parts of the online world. It’s odd that in this age of loosened borders and individualism, online you can be drowned out with boos and hisses just by stating an off-center position. Sure, the idyllic promise of the Internet is that it can bring you news from around the world and expose you to people and things you never would have seen otherwise, but in reality many of us use it simply as an echo chamber.”

The second article, “The News About the Internet,” by Michael Massing for the New York Review of Books explores the role the Internet, particularly blogs, play in the dissemination of news. I explored this topic myself in a recent post here at the Reputation.com Blog.

From Massing’s article:

“This image of the Internet as parasite has some foundation. Without the vital news-gathering performed by established institutions, many Web sites would sputter and die. In their sweep and scorn, however, such statements seem as outdated as they are defensive. Over the past few months alone, a remarkable amount of original, exciting, and creative (if also chaotic and maddening) material has appeared on the Internet. The practice of journalism, far from being leeched by the Web, is being reinvented there, with a variety of fascinating experiments in the gathering, presentation, and delivery of news. And unless the editors and executives at our top papers begin to take note, they will hasten their own demise.”

According to various reports, AT&T blocked access to the popular and controversial web forum yesterday, inciting a swift rebellion from 4chan users. As of this morning, it appears that AT&T has rescinded the block, however, it is entirely possible the company will continue to face recriminations for their censorship.

Since the site’s inception, 4chan.org has been a lightning rod for criticism for its anonymous attacks and proclivity toward Internet defamation. However, despite the often offensive material found on the site, 4chan has also been consistently defended as a haven for free, unfiltered speech online. Needless to say, AT&T’s ban of 4chan, though short, will have lasting effects on Internet culture.

UPDATE:

AT&T spokesperson Brad Mays explained to Ars Technica that the block was due to denial-of-service attacks coming from 4chan IP addresses, not due to any of the content at 4chan.

“Beginning Friday, an AT&T customer was impacted by a denial-of-service attack stemming from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org. To prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and to prevent the attack from spreading to impact our other customers, AT&T temporarily blocked access to the IP addresses in question for our customers. This action was in no way related to the content at img.4chan.org; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic.”

We recently had a concerned police officer share a story with us from PoliceOne.com, a resource that provides officers with the news and tools necessary to protect their communities and protect themselves on the streets.

“One Deputy’s Nightmare: Dealing with Violent Stalkers” recalls Deputy Karen Moss’ chilling report of being being stalked online after apprehending a suspect in a gunfight.  The incarcerated suspect offered a bounty on Moss’ head, apparently providing prospective murderers-for-hire with her name, description, and a suggestion to use Zabasearch to locate her home:

At the jail, [an] informer floated the name of the driver Moss had shot and asked if she knew him. She said yeah, and he said, “Well, he tried to hire me to kill you.” [...]  “I was skeptical, initially,” Moss recalls. But then the snitch produced an incriminating scrap of paper the suspect had given him. Handwritten, it included her name, her physical description, and the name of a website, Zabasearch.com.

[...]

In street searches, she had pulled Zabasearch printouts or notations from the pockets of several suspects. “Zaba is very well known by criminals,” she says, “and they use it.” She had also learned that the home addresses of two officers who’d recently been in shootings, including one living on her block, were accessible there without the officers being aware of it. She figured it was only a matter of time until some angered arrestee or vengeful relative was able to successfully track a cop to his home and wreak violent retribution on him or his family.

Here at Reputation.com, we hear on a daily basis from individuals who are concerned about the safety of their families and the security of their home as a result of the spread of people-data on the Web.  Hundreds of websites like Zabasearch.com give out (free of charge) personally identifiable data like your name, current and former addresses, phone numbers, date of birth, and corresponding information for your relatives and children.  Often times, the only way to remove your information from these sites is to call, email, or send snail-mail to each one — and rarely does the opt-out policy of one “people-data” site match another.

PoliceOne.com notes that Zabasearch agreed to prioritize the removal of Moss’ information, and the addresses of other officers, over standard opt-out submissions.  That helps.  But where does this leave you?  With more than 200 additional people-data sites and information aggregators on the Internet, the average individual faces a daunting task when attempting to wipe their information off of the web. That’s why we created MyPrivacy. With MyPrivacy, Reputation.com has partnered with leading online data providers in order to provide one resource where you can quickly and easily remove your personal data from the Internet.

So, what else can you do?  We recommend being proactive about keeping your data off the web.  People databases typically acquire your information from “public records” (court records, building permits, phone listings, etc.) and marketing lists.  It’ll be tough to get yourself out of public records, but you can stem the flow by thinking twice the next time to register for a discount card (ever wonder why Safeway gives you those great discounts just for registering?), contest, or even a new credit card.

In case you missed it, there was some major drama in the world of social media last week between the widely read social media and technology blog, TechCrunch, and social networking’s newest darling, Twitter. Dubbed Twitter-Gate, the ruckus all started when TechCrunch, one of the foremost information brokers in the Silicon Valley, received a zip file full of 310 confidential internal documents from Twitter. Rather than sitting on the documents, TechCrunch decided to run with them, publishing juicy details about Twitter’s partner agreements, financial projections, and more.

 Image via TechCrunch

Naturally, the incident brought on much criticism of both Twitter, for insufficiently protecting their sensitive information, and TechCrunch, for opting to post the material despite the fact that it was illegally acquired. While there is certainly plenty of criticism to go around, I wanted to take a minute here at the Reputation.com blog not to speculate as to who was right and who was wrong, but rather to remind people just how important is is to protect your privacy in the digital age.

First, let us examine how Twitter’s sensitive material was leaked. According to an article from TechCrunch, the hacker (known as Hacker Croll) was successful because he treated Twitter’s infrastructure as a “eco-system.” In other words, Hacker Croll viewed Twitter as a whole. Rather than seeking one point of entry, he collected information about everything related to Twitter, particularly employees. During his search, he uncovered access to a Twitter employee’s Gmail account which opened up a veritable Pandora’s Box of information including other e-mail accounts, social networking profiles, credit card numbers, and more.

TechCrunch breaks the attack down nicely in their article:

1. HC accessed Gmail for a Twitter employee by using the password recovery feature that sends a reset link to a secondary email. In this case the secondary email was an expired Hotmail account, he simply registered it, clicked the link and reset the password. Gmail was then owned.
2. HC then read emails to guess what the original Gmail password was successfully and reset the password so the Twitter employee would not notice the account had changed.
3. HC then used the same password to access the employee’s Twitter email on Google Apps for your domain, getting access to a gold mine of sensitive company information from emails and, particularly, email attachments.
4. HC then used this information along with additional password guesses and resets to take control of other Twitter employee personal and work emails.
5. HC then used the same username/password combinations and password reset features to access AT&T, MobileMe, Amazon and iTunes, among other services. A security hole in iTunes gave HC access to full credit card information in clear text. HC now also had control of Twitter’s domain names at GoDaddy.
6. Even at this point, Twitter had absolutely no idea they had been compromised.

As easy as it would be to criticize the unnamed Twitter employee for leaving their information accessible, it is probable that he took the same amount of care in protecting his account as 99% of the rest of us. Unfortunately, in a world where personal information is accessible at the mere click of a button, it is not good enough to be partially secure.

So what are some tips for managing your privacy online? First, use common sense. If you have your e-mail account listed online along with information about your favorite dog Bowser, then you shouldn’t make your password recovery question, “What is the name of my pet?” Furthermore, if you don’t already use separate passwords for all of your web-based accounts, start.

Many of us spend our entire day on the Internet. If you use the same password for all of your accounts, you’re literally putting everything in your life up for grabs. Remember, the best passwords are a combination of mixed-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Make your passwords memorable, but also unique. Something like “1p9g8y1″ is a lot harder to crack than “partyguy81.”

As more and more people turn to the Internet to share information, issues of privacy and Online Reputation Management will continue to be pushed to the forefront of popular culture. Taking proactive steps to protect your identity online now will pay enormous dividends in the future.

ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews was a victim of peephole voyeurism recently when an individual took video of her walking around her hotel room naked. Even worse, the Peeping Tom then posted the video to the Internet, where it has spread like wildfire.

Recently, Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik sat down with Fox News to discuss the Erin Andrews case and to explain how the law does not offer the level of protection that most individuals expect.