That city deal to take on Google’s free email services as a cost-cutting measure will actually cost the taxpayers $1.5 million more next year than if City Hall would have stayed with its old email system.

In what seems like bizarre math, Google competitor Novell points out that the cost of training employees and migrating the city’s thousands of workers to gmail will cost an additonal $1.5 mil. Indeed, the city is actually paying out $.7.2 million as part of a deal with Computer Sciences Corp. to help employees migrate to the Google services. It’s apparently more than the cost of maintaining its old email system.

Novell, which was bidding to take of city email services, is mad: “With the City facing a massive budget deficit, the speculated budget benefits of switching to this untested application are enticing, but as a recent independent Los Angeles City Administrative Officer report has stated, the proposed system under consideration will actually cost taxpayers an additional $1.5 million in the first year. There are significant costs to migrating, training and securing Google Apps.”

The question is, who needs to be trained how to use gmail? The city can probably save money on the Google service in the long run after its employees have been “trained,” but still, it seems strange that, at a time when the city faces $100 million budget shortfall and possible future deficits that could be higher, we’re paying an extra $1.5 million to use free email.

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I recently appeared on Fox and Friends to discuss email hacking. Dave Briggs, a FOX & Friends Weekend co-host, lost access to his Hotmail email account when hackers were able to guess either his password or his qualifying question. (He admitted that his password was not as strong as it should have been.) The hackers locked Briggs out of his own account and spammed all of his contacts with a fraudulent email that appeared to be written by Briggs himself, claiming that he was trapped in Malaysia and requesting that someone help him by transferring money via Western Union. Only after persistently contacting Hotmail administrators was Briggs able to regain control of his own email account.

Twitter was targeted by a similar hack, which led to a data breach. It is likely that the hacker guessed the answer to a Twitter employee’s security question and reset the employee’s password. On Wednesday, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone blogged, “About a month ago, an administrative employee here at Twitter was targeted and her personal email account was hacked. From the personal account, we believe the hacker was able to gain information which allowed access to this employee’s Google Apps account which contained Docs, Calendars, and other Google Apps Twitter relies on for sharing notes, spreadsheets, ideas, financial details and more within the company.”

And of course, Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account was hacked into last year, during the presidential campaign. The hacker explained how easy it was in Wired.

Web-based email rocks! Since you’re no longer tethered to a PC-based client, you can access your email from anywhere. And all the data saved in your email account will be safe if your PC crashes. Many web-based email providers offer gigabytes of free storage and other useful tools like documents, RSS readers, and calendars. Life in the cloud is easier and more convenient. But is it secure?

PC Pro reported on a study run by Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University, which measured the reliability and security of the questions that the four most popular webmail providers use to reset account passwords. AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo all rely on personal questions to authenticate users who have forgotten their passwords. The study found that the “secret questions” used by all four webmail providers were insufficiently reliable authenticators, and that the security of personal question appears much weaker than passwords themselves. Yahoo claims to have updated all their personal questions in response to this study, but AOL, Google, and Microsoft have yet to make any changed.

Once a hacker has your email address, he or she can simply go to the “forgot password” section of your email provider’s website and respond to a preselected personal question that you answered when signing up for the account. With a little research, the hacker has a good shot at finding the correct answer.

Some of the current questions could be answered using information found on a user’s social networking profile, or through a website like Ancestry.com or Genealogy.com. Some answers might be found in the user’s trash. Some questions seek opinions, rather than facts. For example, “Who is your favorite aunt?” requires an opinion in response, but if a hacker knew the names of all your aunts, he or she could enter them all one by one. Some questions would be more difficult to answer. Unfortunately, if you signed up for your web-based email account over a year ago, before these email hacks became more common, your questions may be even easier to answer.

Gmail’s current personal questions are:

• What is your frequent flyer number?
• What is your library card number?
• What was your first phone number?
• What was your first teacher’s name?
• Write my own question

Yahoo’s current personal questions are:

• What is the first name of your favorite uncle?
• Where did you meet your spouse?
• What is your oldest cousin’s name?
• What is your oldest child’s nickname?
• What is the first name of your oldest niece?
• What is the first name of your oldest nephew?
• What is the first name of your favorite aunt?
• Where did you spend your honeymoon?

I suggest that you check out the “forgot password” section on your own web-based email account, to see your current personal question. If it’s easy to answer, or would only require a little research to solve, update the question with one that you create based on opinion, as opposed to fact. And keep in mind that most people list “pizza” as their favorite food and “liver” as their least favorite. So be creative. You should also beef up your password. Combine uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers. Don’t use consecutive numbers, and never use names of pets, family members, or close friends.

1. Get a credit freeze. Go online now and search “credit freeze” or “security freeze” and follow the steps for the state you live in. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes the SSN useless to the thief.

2. Invest in Identity Theft Prevention and Protection. While not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, you can effectively manage your personal identifying information by knowing what’s buzzing out there in regards to YOU.

Free Email to Cost City 1.5 millions de dollars supplémentaires par Dennis Romero, City Nouvelles, la communauté, la politique lun., 2 novembre 2009 @ 12:04 Que faire face la ville de prendre sur les services de messagerie gratuit de Google en tant que coût de découpe sur mesure sera effectivement coûté aux contribuables 1,5 million de dollars plus l’année prochaine que si l’hôtel de ville serait restée avec son système de courrier électronique ancienne. Dans ce qui semble bizarre, comme les mathématiques, Google concurrent Novell fait remarquer que le coût de la formation des employés et la migration de la ville des milliers de travailleurs à gmail coûtera mil additonal 1.5 $. En effet, la ville paie effectivement .7.2 millions de dollars dans le cadre d’un accord avec Computer Sciences Corp aider les employés à migrer vers les services Google. Il paraît que c’est plus que le coût du maintien de sa system.Novell ancien e-mail, qui était de prendre des appels d’offres de services en ville e-mail, est fou: «Avec la ville, face à un déficit budgétaire massif, le budget allocations spéculé du passage à cette demande non testés sont alléchants , mais comme une récente indépendant de Los Angeles City rapport de l’agent d’administration a déclaré, le système proposé à l’examen sera fait coûter aux contribuables une somme supplémentaire de 1,5 millions dans la première année. Il ya des coûts importants pour la migration, la formation et la sécurisation de Google Apps. ” La question est de savoir qui a besoin d’être formés pour savoir comment utiliser Gmail? La ville peut sans doute économiser de l’argent sur le service Google sur le long terme, après ses employés ont été «formés», mais encore, il semble étrange que, à un moment où la ville est confrontée à 100 millions de dollars déficit budgétaire et d’éventuels déficits futurs qui pourraient être plus élevés , nous payons une somme supplémentaire de 1,5 millions à utiliser l’hôte email.Email libre