Offtopic, I know.
Myspace had been hacked pretty heavily. you can read about it on slashdot ( http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=351563 ).
I've done some research, and it looks like the problems is bigger than first realized; if you have a myspace account or like me your KIDS do, might want to change those passwords before the really creative people i've seen exploiting this get to you.

does this really affect people?  :confused

Quote - does this really affect people?  :confused

Only if you, your kids, or someone you know has a myspace account. I think everyone at least knows someone with a myspace account.
I think the worst thing I've seen so far (in the hour since i've been looking at this) is a guys site being turned into a "pedophiles memoir".
I've already woke up my kids to make them change theirs, and warn their friends.

Let's pray they don't go after flickr then!

There's a huge difference between hacking and phishing.  HUGE.  And, uh, any account that you sign into using a username and password can be phished.  Sad to say, but it's true.  Some people have nothing better to do with their time than to make others miserable.
The only way to protect yourself is to change your password a lot, only put code on your page or in your bulletins that you trust or know where it came from, and code your own page and blog.  Most phishing for myspace happens via the hacking of places like Pimp My Space and stuff like that. 

Quote - does this really affect people?  :confused

Actually, it can.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071500119_2.html

Here is more information about the phishing:

http://www.tech2.com/india/news/antivirus-security-internet/myspace-users-phished-again/2514/0

Quote - does this really affect people?  :confused

Lets put it this way, you have a myspace account & I have your password, I can change your page to say anything I want, including labelling you a paedophile, nice thought that eh?

A friends account was affected, someone sent out a bulletin from her that was so not her.  I changed my password and my account didn't appear to have been affected.

Luckily I don't let my kids on myspace, my son wanted a blog so I set him up on my site where I have total control. 

just as an aside, every time I get redirected to a myspace garbage-dump, it seems as if most users say they're 99 yrs old. but when I tried to sign up at one of the poser sites a few months back and accidentally enterd a birth year of 1870, it said "no users over 80 allowed". :lol:

Quote - > Quote - does this really affect people?  :confused

Lets put it this way, you have a myspace account & I have your password, I can change your page to say anything I want, including labelling you a paedophile, nice thought that eh?

Not only that, but some people use the same login and password from site to site. So if they have a MySpace account and use eBay or PayPal with the same login and password information, the thief now has the means to really take you to the cleaners.

Why does anyone in their right mind use that dreadful site?

Quote - Why does anyone in their right mind use that dreadful site?

I've found some amazing music by artists I'd never have heard of otherwise.  That's a good enough reason for me.

Attached Link: MySpace, Facebook and Bebo Security (BBC Watchdog)

They went and signed up for a credit card and a bank account with details gotten from Facebook / Myspace etc. The guy sat there, totally shocked, watching them do it.

Half an hour is all it took.

slinger: You can probably find much more by using Youtube. Also, listening to internet radio is a great way to discover new music. There are quite a few bands that I like who have Myspace pages, but I have only ever discovered one new artist/band via Myspace itself.

Myspace, shmyi-space.  IMHO, it's an awful site.  And it's a good place to avoid, for many reasons.  I have visited that site a grand total of twice -- on both occasions attempting to figure out why the thing is so popular.  And I left there scratching my head.  The popularity of myspace makes about as much sense as the (once upon a time) seemingly overwhelming popularity of Madonna......or of Michael Jackson.

Obviously: a lot of people disagree with me on those points.  But that's OK.

You're not alone there, I don't see the appeal of it either. The pages are riddled with childish pictures and 90 percent of them take forever to load. Poorly coded website with tons of in your face ads.

Do you guys realise that not only has hackers and script kiddies but also spyware? I hope you guys run your spyware removel programs after you leave that site and keep your AV on as well. I can only imagine all the spyware you must have on your computer system if you go there. That goes for YouTube too. YT now has spyware in it. Once I found that out, I closed my channel. As for finding music. There's plenty of free websites that have music and videos that are much safer  than MySpace. If you do use those sites I strongly suggest you change your password often and never give it out. And, delete your cookies after every visit to be on the safe side.

You're not alone there, I don't see the appeal of it either. The pages are riddled with childish pictures and 90 percent of them take forever to load. Poorly coded website with tons of in your face ads.

That statement could as easily apply to the whole internet ;-)

Attached Link: 45 Million Credit Card Numbers Hacked

Google News didn't report MySpace being hacked, so it might just be an isolated problem for people who don't pay much attention to where they put their username/password or from code they install in their profiles. A Google News search for "credit card numbers hacked" shows that Art.com just got hacked, a Massachusetts restaurant chain got hacked, eBay's lawyer had his profile altered and personal information posted publicly, Apple's iPhones got hacked, and I've provided a link to an article where 45 million credit card numbers were compromised. I also found a 2005 Washington Post article where Mastercard found 40 million cards at risk from their being hacked. The point is that MySpace isn't the only website being hacked.

If somebody hacks my MySpace account, I'll be inconvenienced, but not at any risk for my money since they don't have my credit card number and I don't use the same password as I do for other sites where I use my credit card. It probably doesn't hurt that I use FireFox as a browser.

Being on MySpace has been a mixed experience for me so far. I've met some cool people. The Poser group has over 100 members, but still doesn't have enough members to be self sufficient (if I stop posting, it will probably slowly die). MySpace has finally stomped down the worst spammers (some were using software to create hundreds of thousands of fake profiles and bombarding members with friend requests), so that's not the problem it was when I started. A new problem is that groups can no longer be reliably searched. When I started my account, I was able to search for groups and eventually found a few Poser groups that were on MySpace. That function is now nearly useless and I cannot even find my group, let alone any other Poser groups (or other 3D groups for that matter). Group forums still remain fairly weak compared to the more robust programs being used elsewhere on the net for forums.

I haven't had time to promote my profile on MySpace, so remain mostly invisible there. That's my problem and not one of the site. The jury is still out for me on whether joining will have been a fully worthwhile experience. It hasn't thus far been bad and it's helped me discipline myself to writing a weekly blog.