Hackers could track the person behind your usernames
A new wave of online crime is on the way – and all that's required is your username. Hackers may soon be able to identify which screen names belong to one person just by analysing the characters that make up the name.
This would allow criminals to send out better-targeted spamming and phishing attacks. For instance, cross-referencing eBay usernames with Google email accounts could allow accurately targeted phishing attacks, using freely available data about a user's eBay purchasing habits.
"I don't think it would be hard to pull off such an attack," says Daniele Perito at the National Institute for Computing and Automation Research, in Grenoble, France, the lead author of the work.
