Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by __P 3890 days ago
That isn't secure information... Emails often contain that info, which is kind of worse than HTTP.
1 comments
slantedview 3890 days ago
But it is secure information. If I recall, last 4 digits were part of how the CIA chief's e-mail was hacked recently.
link
SomeCallMeTim 3890 days ago
No, it's not secure information.

Any time you use last-4 as something secure, you're doing it wrong.

As mentioned above, last-4 is sent by email frequently, and email passes, unencrypted, through intermediate servers all over the Internet. Any compromised host can observe all of the email that passes through it.

Any process that uses last-4 to unlock a password or otherwise as a secure token is broken by design.

link
CamperBob2 3890 days ago
Any time you use last-4 as something secure, you're doing it wrong.

It's not a question of what I use those digits for, it's a question of what everyone else uses them for.

link