TORONTO - Canada's privacy commissioner suggests you think twice about Twittering your porn name -- because it could lead to hackers stealing your real name.
A recent blog post by one of Jennifer Stoddart's staffers recommends that users of online social networks -- like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace -- opt out of playing a name game that's making the rounds.
The warning specifically targets users of Twitter -- a blogging website used to publicly send and receive 140-character messages -- who may have recently seen their friends announce they have a new adult-film star pseudonym.
Anyone can play the game by combining their first pet's name with the name of the first street they lived on.
The name-changing exercise has gone viral, and a number of groups on Facebook are also encouraging everyone to post their own fake porno aliases.
Problem is, hackers may be mining those nicknames to target people for identity theft, gaining access to email and bank accounts.
Most websites that host personal information usually ask users for the answer to a security question, and one of the most common choices involves the names of pets.
Experts say hackers could be mining the porn names of Internet users, linking them with email addresses listed in Twitter or Facebook accounts with the hope of cracking the inbox and doing further damage from there.
Archived emails with passwords for other sites -- particularly online banking sites -- would be a gold mine for hackers and those looking to perpetrate identity theft crimes.
But it appears Twitter users are quickly getting the message about the potential scam, as most porn-name posts are now just warnings.
The average web surfer may think of a federal bureaucrat as a stuffy suit who's completely out of touch, but a spokeswoman for the privacy commissioner says the office is getting more and more calls about Internet-related complaints, and staffers must stay hip to all the latest web trends.
"Just by virtue of the type of work we do, we do need to be aware of things like social networking," said Anne-Marie Hayden, who notes the office is investigating concerns about privacy on Facebook and is currently getting a lot of calls about Google Street View.
"We're trying to raise awareness about the fact that a lot of this personal information can be used as identifiers for authentication, and if you put those things at risk you can be at risk of identity theft."
Stoddart's blog links to the website of Sophos, a maker of online security software, which notes that even celebrities and politicians like Sarah Palin, Paris Hilton and Salma Hayek have had their email accounts hacked.
The company recommends that users avoid posting personal information online, come up with fake answers to security questions that will thwart hackers, and use different passwords for their important accounts.
