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The other day, I was trying to sign into my Subway loyalty app. That's Subway the sandwich shop. They've changed their security model, and please would I pick a new password.

Which turned out to be tricky )

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An question about web forms and security...

When filling in forms (I use FireFox), it's often possible to hit the down arrow and get a list of things you previously typed into that field. This is kind of handy, mostly, and results in me not having to type my name or email address out a lot.

Forms taking things like credit card details don't usually do this - for obvious reasons - and I assume the existence of some sort of 'nocache' attribute which the form-writer can set on the fields which contain information which should be a little more secure.

Except today I filled in an entire payment form (card number, expiry date, security code, the lot) from cached information based on me having filled the same form out on that website months ago. This strikes me as Not Good.

I intend to write to the site in question and tell them I think they're a bit rubbish... but I'd like to be sure I know what I'm talking about first. Am I right about the form attribute ? Am I totally wrong, and this is something which FireFox implements wrongly and the site itself can't be blamed for ?

Informed opinion welcome :)
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I've just been reading an article about the threat posed to companies by sysadmins, and the trouble they can cause when they leave. In it, the writer draws the analogy to his own son who, on moving out of the family house, will be required to leave his doorkeys behind: "Just because he lived here does not mean he's entitled to just walk in when it suits him."

Which surprised me. I still have a key to my parents' house, despite having not significantly lived there in a decade. I feel it would be impolite just to walk in unannounced (not to mention impractical - our respective abodes are a couple of hundred miles apart), but in theory I could. When I visit, I let myself in rather than ringing the bell. Occasionally I stay there when my parents are away, though I do ask in advance.

Observation of a limited number of friends in the environs of their parents' houses has suggested that they have broadly similar arrangements.

So, o LJ, tell me what is normal, usual behaviour.

I guess it depends to some extent on the relationship you have with your parents and, possibly, whether or not they've moved since you last lived with them. I have never formally 'moved out' of my parents' house - my bedroom is still notionally my bedroom, and has quite a lot of my stuff in it; I suspect this will change if/when I ever manage to purchase my own residence. How many people do officially 'move out' as opposed to slowly drifting into new routines, leaving their parents' house festooned with junk to be tolerated, delivered in a crate or quietly thrown away. How many people have been relieved of their keys ? Have people been presented with keys to a new parental abode in which they've never lived ?
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Urgh. Feeling this rubbish with a cold, for this long, ought not to be allowed.

However, while I've been lying in bed, whinging, my credit card's been off having fun.

MBNA rang me yesterday, and explained there were some suspicious transactions on my card. Before going into details, they'd need me to answer some security questions. Oh dear, here we go again...

The usual security rigmarole )

And yes, it seems my card has been off having fun at iTunes and Napster. Not a huge amount of fun, though - three songs, which totals about £3.

What I want to know is how did the credit card company spot it as suspicious ? Admittedly, I don't buy music from iTunes but it's the sort of thing that I might very plausibly do. I do buy downloadable music online occasionally, and MBNA probably don't know that I'd rather eat my own foot than use iTunes.

I've no idea what information iTunes (or any other online retailer) might log which would make it possible to deduce the purchaser wasn't me. And if they thought the transaction suspicious, wouldn't they stop it at the point of sale ?

I guess the heuristics used are kept secret by the credit card companies, just to make it harder to work round them. But does anyone have a clue how it works ?

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