Account Security
In September, 2012, media outlets began reporting on the findings of Kevin Burke, a software developer and Virgin Mobile USA customer. Burke's experimentation led him to claim that Virgin Mobile USA's account security practices do not adequately protect customer account information.
To access their account via the Virgin Mobile USA website, a customer must enter their ten-digit telephone number and a six-digit password. The maximum possible number of six-digit password is one million, a relatively small number. According to Burke, Virgin Mobile USA did not employ security techniques that would prevent an attacker from rapidly cycling through all possible password permutations, allowing a brute force attack to succeed in twelve days or less.
In response to the wide media coverage, Virgin Mobile updated its online account access system, limiting users to 20 attempts from one IP address.
Read more about this topic: Virgin Mobile USA
Famous quotes containing the words account and/or security:
“All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Modern children were considerably less innocent than parents and the larger society supposed, and postmodern children are less competent than their parents and the society as a whole would like to believe. . . . The perception of childhood competence has shifted much of the responsibility for child protection and security from parents and society to children themselves.”
—David Elkind (20th century)