shahine.com/omar/

A few months ago, Torres sent me this link and told me not to watch this at work or I'd cry.

I watched it at work, in the teaming area of our floor actually... and tears did form.

Once a month I watch this video, for no other reason than to remind myself how lucky I am.

Data Loss? Been there, done that.

Windows Live ID hijacked? Replace Windows Live ID with Google or Yahoo ID.

What do you do when some one:

1. hacks into your account
2. changes your password
3. changes your secret question
4. changes your "alternate email address"
5. changes all your profile information
6. sets up mail forwarding to another account
7. Turn on the exclusive junk filter (deleting all your email)
8. Deletes your life (email, contacts etc)

That is what I found this evening. I believe that some one managed to issue a password reset command to my account and then somehow logged in and reset my password essentially owning my data.

How did they do this? Like this for example.

Not sure how this happened to me since my Hotmail password is strong, secure, unique etc.

But right now I am totally and uterly hosed.

Luckily I have my email offline (Outlook Connector).

But I feel like crying.

The amount of personal information in my email account. Just think about what is archived "in the cloud" under the username and password of a single network.

Now thing of how you would feel if you found out that some one else had all that information. Just think about that for a second. What do you have in the cloud? What kind of personal information is up there?

Lucky for me I could make some phone calls and get my account access restored. But I am feeling extremely vulnerable right now.

update: my account just got hijacked again, minutes ago. Also so did my GMail account.

I have no idea WTF is going on here. I have only used one computer this entire time.

Also the attacker changed my First and Last name in passport to:

"hey omar i can access all your email

you omars@micro dont paly with me aigne"

I was reminded how absurd our airport security system is when I was returning from Mexico and I was:

1. not required to remove my laptop
2. not required to remove my shoes
3. was not allowed to bring water on board purchased past the security line

This article in the New York Times, by Patrick Smith, who wrote one of my favorite books, Ask the Pilot, hits the nail on the head.

Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.

It seems by looking at the comments, I am not alone in how I feel.

BTW, Family made it home safe from Mexico. Thanks to everyone for the words of support. It was a long 4 day trip home, but thanks to our fantastic and supportive family, we made it back and are happy to be home.

I am drafting a letter to Alaska, and a few other folks letting them know about the flight. We'll see what happens.

We took Sarah (and Lora) to the Monterey Aquarium for the first time this weekend. This is by far my favorite Aquarium in the country. The architecture of the buildings, the exhibits and the presentation is outstanding. Oh, they also have a fantastic cafeteria. If you ever visit the San Francisco Bay Area, this is well worth a trip.

Here is Sarah having just touched her first Star Fish.

My favorite exhibit is the jelly fish one.

Also the huge sea tank where you can see the huge Sun Fish and Tuna.

Once again, OMAR outperforms MSFT 2 years in a row.I may never get my birthday wish... is 1$ a year in growth too much to ask for? Apparently...

Anyway, I have a nice 1991 Silver Oak Cab and a 1997 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet to keep me distracted tonight.