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You Might Want To Think About Getting Rid Of Your Old MySpace Account

You Might Want To Think About Getting Rid Of Your Old MySpace Account

Seriously.

Mark McGowan

Mark McGowan

Everyone knows that true embarrassment and shame lies in the beginning of your internet usage.

Your first email address, MSN screen name, Bebo and MySpace accounts are all things that you'd much rather forget about, but are sadly still out there.

Even though they're buried deep in the back of your mind, they have a tendency to rear their ugly heads, with the only comfort being in that no one will bother looking for them.

Your ears may prick up though when you're told a MySpace security flaw made it possible for anyone to take over any account.

via GIPHY

Last year it was revealed that back in 2013, a huge security disaster meant 360 million accounts were compromised, Wired reports, making it one of the largest user data breaches ever.

Time Inc, the company that now owns the site, claimed they have vamped up online safety precautions, but that has been somewhat over shadowed by the revelation that any account could have been accessed should someone have the correct account owner's listed name, username, and birthday.

Security researcher, Leigh-Anne Galloway, published details regarding the hack after she didn't get a substantial response from the site, having alerted them to the error in April.

She basically found that because MySpace isn't exactly the most popular platform these days that attempting to 'recover' a profile isn't such a grueling task.

Rather than having to answer security questions about your neighbour's cat and list seven different email accounts and passwords, it was just a case of entering a birthday, name and username, followed by an email address so you can reset the password and enter the account.

"This is indicative of the landscape we live in," Galloway says. "Everything is done online, which means there is more and more code online. Web applications are the front door to an organization. The consequences of getting access can be catastrophic."

Credit: leigh-annegalloway.com

The said form has now been removed, with the previous URL redirecting to another page.

"I think the public is just waking up to the realities of living a connected life," Galloway says. "This is a good thing and will put more pressure on organizations to implement smarter security."

This may not seem like such a bad thing, simply because your MySpace account probably hasn't been touched by 2010. But think about it, if details are on there, details that are still relevant today, such as addresses, then it could have disastrous consequences.

Plus, you wouldn't want any of those God awful pictures getting anywhere where they shouldn't be, would you?

Featured Image Credit: MySpace/PA