How to hack a former employee's LinkedIn account

This is a surprisingly easy way that employers can hack into a former employee's LinkedIn account. They can change anything they want, including password and the former employee wouldn't know until it is to late. This was a discovery I made today when...

I received a phone call from one of my former colleagues. She was having trouble changing information on the company's LinkedIn page. Seeing as how I used to be one of the admins, she tried to login with my company e-mail. At one point  I had added my company e-mail as a contact. I no longer use that e-mail and thought the account was deactivated. However, like with most companies, the mail account can be remade or retrieved.

Now it is important to note that I originally registered with a different e-mail to linkedIn and had a different primary e-mail address than my company e-mail. What I did not know, was that if you have an e-mail address associated to your profile account, you can login using that e-mail as a username.

So she had my username. Then the password was all that was needed. For this a simple password recovery sent to the company e-mail was all that was needed to reset the password and voila, she was in my account. But unfortunately I was no longer admin of the page, so she had to start all over. She was nice enough to call me and tell me what my password had been reset too. To be honest I was really amazed that she was able to do this so easily as she is not someone who I would call technical.

So how to you keep your old employer from taking your account? Make sure to remove any past e-mails from your account. This took a little searching to try and find where it was.

How to keep linkedin safe from former colleagues

1. Hover on your name in the top right corner, and select settings from the drop-down menu.

2. Under your profile picture click on Primary E-mail address CHANGE/ADD

3. Now remove any former e-mail addresses. Try to keep it to just 2 e-mails max.

That's it, your a bit safer now. I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did please share it with friends or colleagues who would find it useful.

A Nano Swarm

If you ever wonder what the world may look like in a few years with Nano bots flying through the sky. In perfect formation they could act as giant CO2 scrubbers, or even survey disaster sights for search and rescue. The possibilities are enormous but the sound will be much like a swarm of bees coming towards you. Have a look and see for yourself the work being done at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Quickly you can imagine a world filled with swarms of flying robots.

A swarm of flying robots

Restore Pattern Security Android

I really like my security pattern on the Android phone (Nexus 1). Basically I can draw a pattern to unlock my phone rather than using some pin number or password. I don't like password or pin as it is just annoying to quickly input on my phone with the keypad. I've seen many friends using this feature, however recently there was a problem.

After trying to install e-mail from my work account on my phone, I kept recieving security updates from the server. [Note to self: do not install stuff when you are intoxicated]. After allowing this by accident I realized I coudn't use my pattern security swipe anymore. I kep[t recieving the message "pattern disabled by phone administrator". What? So how do you fix this?

1. Goto Home > Settings > Location & security settings > Device administration

2. remove the device administrator.

Now I'm not sure what other security problems this may have, but I've got my security pattern back. If you have the same problem I hope this helps. And of course if anyone has any tips or comments about this and why it may be good or bad, leave a comment!

And remember to keep your fingers clean or it doesn't work so well :-)

Related articles

• Smartphone Security Thwarted by Fingerprint Smudges (pcworld.com)

Data Visualization Movies

Image via Wikipedia

I really love the incredible boom of data visualizations. To me this exploding artform is really offering us a new insight into our lives. As an example, via Many Eyes [an open data visualization site developed by IBM] I came across an interesting graph for all my film making buddies. A graph that shows all the various genres of films made since the late 1800's. Interesting that Reality TV has the most increase lately where as Westerns have been in the decline for years. Funny enough Musicals have been rather steady since 1920's. The most interesting is the enormous rise of Short Films in the last years, and seems to be making a comeback. Probably because the tools are getting easier again to not only create but also to publish. I say if you're making a movie check which genres are doing best if you wanna get your audience, or go for a niche that is in decline if you feel you can bring something new to the table. There are lots of other graphs to check out as well on the site, or even make your own.

If you are interested in learning more about data visualization there is an excellent film on Vimeo that I received via my old colleague Peter Hutton. The film describes how Journalists are starting to use these tools to research stories. Once we start to navigate information in new ways, new conclusions and discoveries begin. My feeling is that Good Data Visualization Designers are going to start creeping into every aspect of our lives. From our bank statements, tax reports, health reports to even our report cards from school [if you are still in school]. I say try making a simple data visual of some data block from your life and see what you discover about yourself. If you want some inspiration go check Nicholas Feltron and his beautiful personal year reports.

Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.

Related articles

• Google Expands Data Visualization To Europe (informationweek.com)
• Six Stunning Projects That Show the Power of Data Visualization (pbs.org)
• Where should an aspiring data journalist start? (onlinejournalismblog.com)
• ManyEyes is a Powerful Visualizer for Your Data [Data Visualization] (lifehacker.com)

My New Job as Digital Creative

The headline says it all! Today I have just signed a contract to be Digital Creative at Indie in Amsterdam. I am so excited about this new job and about working with the team at Indie. Indie is a great Agency in Amsterdam with an excellent reputation, formerly known as SVH. For the past month I have been working closely with Lode Schaeffer, the head Creative at Indie on a few projects. I am very excited about all 3 concepts that we have created and successfully pitched over the past month. The chemistry at Indie feels perfect. Here I've found a company that's not scared to try new things and strive to push the envelope of advertising. One of my favorite campaigns they created was with Sportlife and the Yetiball.

Working with Lode over the past month has been a challenge and also a great creative collaboration. In Holland Lode's reputation proceeds himself, and to say I've sat across from him for the past month concepting is enough to make many people in the biz in Holland nearly break their necks in a double take.

There are big plans and lots of great projects on which I will be working, officially starting on January 1, 2010. All I can say is that Indie is finally a place where the crazy ideas I have and the preachings about engagement and approach of digital campaigns do not fall on deaf ears. Quite the opposite, they are being stimulated. What's also great about Indie is that they understand how important it is for me to be able to work on purely creative projects and to keep teaching Design for Virtual Theater and Games at the HKU, which they have re-enforced in our agreement by allowing me to work part-time still as a teacher and digital artist.

To get a perspective on how much Indie is prepared to try new things we have projects ranging from Augmented Reality Games to Virtual Flashmob Dance mash-ups in pre-production. A very exciting time, and a very exciting company to work with. I couldn't have dreamed of a better job at a better company a few months ago. A big thanks toIsabelle O'kanewho made the first introduction with Tim O'Kennedy that landed me an interview with Indie. Thanks a bunch Isabelle! Next time out the champagne is on me. Now I head back to the states for the Holidays to reconnect with my family before starting this next adventure. PEACE!

Image by Guido Van Nispen

Video Mapping or Augmented Reality

At the moment I'm talking with Marius Veltman. He has a really awesome tutorial and technique about how to do Video Mapping or a Augmented Reality experience. We are talking about doing a project together for the Cannabis Cup here in Amsterdam to really freak out some people together with the guys form Hemp Works. Just have a look at the experiments that he has made. And get excited. It is a new technique which some have been very good at. However up until now only Marius has shared his findings and techniques. Most are keeping their cards very close to themselves on how it is achieved. Just check out his site where there are also documents about how to do it yourself. Very cool Marius!

Video Mapping on Buildings

PIXAR CREATIVE PROCESS

Image by matlock via Flickr

In this interview from , Michael B. Johnson of Pixar discusses tips on the Creative Process. He also talks about moving from an analog to a digital creative process and some of the pitfalls of working virtually as well as some of the pros. Michael develops software for the animators and creatives at Pixar animation Studios, which is known for it's creativity and 3D animation films. To watch more of these interviews, check the link here.

INTERVIEW WITH URBAN GAME GURU

Image by fiahless via Flickr

This is an interview I filmed for Picnic in New York together with my good buddy Kevin Slavin. Kevin is the founder of Area Code and is an extremely smart and creative dude. He develops everything from Urban Games to ARGs, to Cross Media games, and more. Have a look at the interview and definitely check him out at Picnic in Amsterdam this year. In the interview he talks about the Augmented City and how information technologies need to simplify rather than complicate the information we generate around a city.

Is TV so Bad?

I haven't had a TV in Holland for a little over a year now. Actually I never really watched dutch TV to be honest when I did. When Bicyclemark skyped Amserdamize and I if we wanted to be on TV, we said sure why not? A friend of his Shylo (fun geek girl who loves games) +, was asked to be on about the whole Twitter and Iran story. She was friends with BicycleMark and he called us and we went with the 4 of us there. I cannot devulge all that happend but it was lots of surprises. I thought it was going to be some Dutch sitting around a table drinking coffee talk type of program which they have mastered. Nope it was a revision of the classic "The Gong Show " but now with audience support and twitter. Something called " NON". I broadcasted backstage via my live stream and some stuff after wards on Qik . But to really see how it went, just watch the clip. Warning it is in Dutch, and it makes no sense at all! A BIG SHOUT to Zenuno for recording this and putting it up for us so quick! and ANOTHER BIG SHOUT to J.P. Oosterom that took the twitpic. Love ya guys!

Milo Xbox of AI friends

Xbox and Steven Spielberg have gotten into a project called "Milo". It is scarely like A.I. that was made by Spielberg, and really shows how far the "Tamagochi" Phenomenon can happen. When we feel lonely our laptops and our games are our new friends. Scary and sick but this is how it is going. But does Milo have a soul? Do these inatimate items that we had as kids, such as the blanket, doll, or star wars figure we loved have a soul? A new generation of imaginary Virtual Friends is about to occur. Get ready, because everything ios about to change! Thanks for the tip GabeB!