FIRST, there was the Gfail – when Google’s e-mail service Gmail went down for hours.
The major outage hit thousands of users worldwide, and while it happened in the wee hours of the morning for United States users, it was peak hour traffic for users in Asia, as it was roughly between 5pm and 11pm for us.
Then, in the same day, numerous Gmail users were hit by a phishing attempt.
The phish came in this form: a friend on your Gtalk contact list would send a message that gives an inocuous-looking link, and “tells” you that the video at the end of that link – the ViddyHo website – was quite a laugh.
It’s only human to click the link. And when you do, it asks you to enter your Gmail address and password so you can watch the video.
Uh-oh. If you did that, you’ve only given some hacker the address and keys to your e-mail account.
If you’re anything like me, your Gmail account holds a great deal of personal correspondence, and even confidential material such as reports, phone numbers and even identity details.
I rely on Gmail to prepare my notes, send out urgent e-mails to newsmakers in the middle of the night, and to chat with my friends, whether they be in Bukit Timah or Sydney.
When the outage occurred, I felt lost. And when the phishing attempt was reported, I felt outrage.
It is almost the equivalent of getting locked out of my own bedroom, while someone takes their time to go through my diary, my underwear drawer and perhaps take a nap in my bed.
Most of all, I felt handicapped, because access to my information was not at my fingertips.
The past 24 hours have also made me a lot more aware of how much time I spend on e-mail, and how reliant I am on it.
Judging by the amount of searches and posts about the outages online, it seems there are many people out there who feel the same way.