With the internet as big as it is, there are quite a few bad fish in the sea. They’re out to take advantage of anyone they can, and that may be you. How can you mitigate this? One of the easiest ways to protect yourself and your online presence is to keep your passwords diverse, complicated, and secure.
By having a different password for each site you use, you eliminate the vulnerability that exists in having one password for everything. Although you may be able to keep it in your head and never written down anywhere, the websites you log into have a database of logins – and yours is in there. If one of your favorite websites were to be hacked, your password would be out there. The hackers can then make educated guesses as to other sites you might log into, put in a similar or identical username, and try your password. By using a different password for every login, you ensure that they can’t access anything else.
A complicated password is also critical for your security. pass1234 is easy for hackers to crack. FJ#82_9’2;@6f.W//`dv” is not easy for hackers to crack. It would take thousands of years for a decently powerful computer to brute force its way through that password. And if you’ve followed my advice to diversify your passwords, you’ll have a bunch of different complex strings of characters, symbols, and numbers that no computer or human can crack. If there’s anyone out there who’s really dedicated to hacking specifically you, they’re going to have a hell of a time.
Okay you’re secure, but how are you supposed to remember all these passwords? Well, there’s a few methods. The most secure would be to remember them all, but that’d be near impossible. You could be like my mom and write them all down in a notebook, but that can be lost, stolen, or forgotten on a road trip. How could she check Facebook if her password is at home? The method that I recommend is that you find yourself a secure password management service. Do your research; make sure they’re using the latest encryption techniques and haven’t had security breaches in the past. Some even come with nifty features like sharing, autofill, and cross-device compatibility.
Stay safe, people. Protect your online presence with the best passwords you can.
[…] Okay, but how did this happen? Well, it would appear that a high-ranking executive in charge of the databases used to secure all of your personal information used the default login credentials rather than changing them to something more secure. That’s right, the hacker merely had to be on the same network as the database and type in “admin” “admin” for the username and password and POOF! Everyone’s valuable information at his fingertips. Perhaps Equifax should have read my post on Password Security! […]