Last week, the people of Hammond gathered at Tope La for more than just a fancy meal. It was also the home of the semester-long Science on Tap lecture series.

Science on Tap began last year as a way to help inform the community of important scientific topics without the need of scientific background.

Dr. John Burris, a computer science professor at Southeastern, spoke for the second lecture of the semester, “Cybersecurity: Beyond the IT Department.”

Burris began the lecture by showing how simple it is for hackers to make their way into any account. He used Sarah Palin as an example. Her personal Yahoo email account was hacked in 2008. 

“He did it using the advanced hacking tool known as Wikipedia,” said Burris.

The hacker was able to look up the answers to her security questions and make his way into her account. This could happen to almost anyone who uses social media because the hacker could find information that is commonly asked in security questions, such as the city one was born in or one’s mother’s maiden name.

“This can be avoided by abandoning security questions. Either lie or avoid them. Most sites have an alternative to security questions, and that’s two factor authentication,” said Burris.

Two factor authentication is where the website sends a text message with a security code to the cell phone it has on file. That code must be reported back to the website for access to be granted.

Burris also discussed how simple it is for hackers to guess passwords, especially if only lowercase letters are used. One can make a password more secure by changing some of the letters to symbols.

One’s cyber security can also be compromised by viruses. The most common sites are stuff like celebrity news, stuff that is like up worthy,” said Burris. “Thumb-drives are very insecure. You should chose wi-fi and thumb drives like you do sexual partners. Only use the ones you really trust.”

These security techniques are designed to prevent cyber-attacks that could result in lost money or the leaking of personal information. These attacks could happen to anyone.

The next Science on Tap lecture will be held Nov. 4 at Tope La. Physicist David Norwood will discuss global warming.