5 ms·

I find this comment to be in poor taste, because I don't believe the matter has anything to do with intelligence. 1970s in USA were a drastically different tim

by snoshy 7y ago

I find this comment to be in poor taste, because I don't believe the matter has anything to do with intelligence. 1970s in USA were a drastically different time than today. Information warfare did not really exist in a meaningful sense for the common person in terms of threats that they would have to consider realistically. Information was even hard to come by for the average person in the country back then. Even ignoring those facts, if you're comparing that to email addresses being known or used today, I think that is also a very uninformed view of the world. The vast majority of the country even today does not understand what information about them is considered confidential, and what is not. I personally see this even among engineers from what are considered top schools today. This is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of being informed. I don't believe that anyone is inherently stupid for being misinformed, especially in an age where information is used for warfare.

tclancy 7y ago
Thank you for this, perspective is hard for those that weren't there. If you think these people were rubes for not understanding what a Social Security Number was for, consider not only did they not have a credit card, they didn't even need to apply for a Blockbuster card. Or maybe the best way of understanding how different the world was: some yutz thought it would be a good idea to put his secretary's SSN on a demo card instead of zeroes. We can all laugh right up until we sign up for a site built by someone who doesn't know credit card companies offer test numbers or doesn't understand the value of hashing passwords.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
dwighttk 7y ago
Parent was quoting the lady who's SSN was stolen. The article didn't say when the quote was from, just "in later years" but probably in the 1950s or 1960s.
Spooky23 7y ago
I have a common <firstinitial><lastname>@gmail.com address. In the last 5 years, I can recall situations where entering my email address led to: - At least three instances where a multiple people abandoned a new job onboarding due to use of my email address. (In Scotland, Texas and Ireland) - One instance where someone was leaking sensitive PII and video regarding a workplace incident that killed someone. - Multiple dressing room / bedroom "how do i look" emails. - One person sent an email every quarter with a zip file containing a VPN client and a word document with a list of about a dozen username, passwords, etc for the industrial facility that she was a plant safety manager. - One guy test drives luxury cars in the Washington DC region as a hobby. - An attorney sent a bunch of litigation related materials to his client. And a bunch of followups to get signatures as deadlines were missed. - One guy was a big Ashley Madison user - Lots of real estate agents in weird disjointed conversations. This stuff has nothing to do with information warfare. Just simple mistakes compounded by complete inattention to detail and often combined with incredibly stupid or irresponsible behavior.
- mcv 7y ago
  My gmail address isn't even firstnamelastname@gmail.com, but 3 initials repeated twice. Looks pretty cryptic, and still I get random mail for other people. A recent one involving an attempt to hire a CTO, Netflix notifications for a Spanish or Portuguese Netflix account, and a bunch of other random stuff. It's amazing how sloppy people can be with email addresses.
- adenner 7y ago
  Even worse, I have a <lastname>@gmail.com address. I have gotten everything from multiple years of tax form from New South Wales to tickets to a wine tasting in South Africa. One of the most fun was church choir info from Germany. At this point I have a multilingual "You have the wrong address" email that I will send once and then create a rule with an auto-reply and auto-delete.
  - mekane8 7y ago
    I have <fistname>.<lastname>@gmail.com and I get an eerily similar combination of mistaken emails. There's a real estate agent in New Jersey and a church deacon in Ireland that really wish they had my email address, apparently.

by snoshy 7y ago

tclancy 7y ago

Thank you for this, perspective is hard for those that weren't there. If you think these people were rubes for not understanding what a Social Security Number was for, consider not only did they not have a credit card, they didn't even need to apply for a Blockbuster card. Or maybe the best way of understanding how different the world was: some yutz thought it would be a good idea to put his secretary's SSN on a demo card instead of zeroes. We can all laugh right up until we sign up for a site built by someone who doesn't know credit card companies offer test numbers or doesn't understand the value of hashing passwords.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

dwighttk 7y ago

Parent was quoting the lady who's SSN was stolen. The article didn't say when the quote was from, just "in later years" but probably in the 1950s or 1960s.

Spooky23 7y ago

I have a common <firstinitial><lastname>@gmail.com address. In the last 5 years, I can recall situations where entering my email address led to: - At least three instances where a multiple people abandoned a new job onboarding due to use of my email address. (In Scotland, Texas and Ireland) - One instance where someone was leaking sensitive PII and video regarding a workplace incident that killed someone. - Multiple dressing room / bedroom "how do i look" emails. - One person sent an email every quarter with a zip file containing a VPN client and a word document with a list of about a dozen username, passwords, etc for the industrial facility that she was a plant safety manager. - One guy test drives luxury cars in the Washington DC region as a hobby. - An attorney sent a bunch of litigation related materials to his client. And a bunch of followups to get signatures as deadlines were missed. - One guy was a big Ashley Madison user - Lots of real estate agents in weird disjointed conversations. This stuff has nothing to do with information warfare. Just simple mistakes compounded by complete inattention to detail and often combined with incredibly stupid or irresponsible behavior.

mcv 7y ago
My gmail address isn't even firstnamelastname@gmail.com, but 3 initials repeated twice. Looks pretty cryptic, and still I get random mail for other people. A recent one involving an attempt to hire a CTO, Netflix notifications for a Spanish or Portuguese Netflix account, and a bunch of other random stuff. It's amazing how sloppy people can be with email addresses.
adenner 7y ago
Even worse, I have a <lastname>@gmail.com address. I have gotten everything from multiple years of tax form from New South Wales to tickets to a wine tasting in South Africa. One of the most fun was church choir info from Germany. At this point I have a multilingual "You have the wrong address" email that I will send once and then create a rule with an auto-reply and auto-delete.
- mekane8 7y ago
  I have <fistname>.<lastname>@gmail.com and I get an eerily similar combination of mistaken emails. There's a real estate agent in New Jersey and a church deacon in Ireland that really wish they had my email address, apparently.