If you feel insecure online from time to time, it’s not all in your head, and it’s not necessarily your fault.
A few days ago, it was discovered that a hacker attack from 4 years ago is still reverberating today. It appears that emails and passwords were posted online, and I certainly hope that most people have changed those passwords since then.
With the proliferation of password standards, what’s acceptable for one site may be lacking in another. Unless you make use of a product like LastPass, you are responsible for your own security.
Who Can you Count on?
Don’t rely on other people to safeguard you. In fact, the terms of service often make it clear that everything on their site belongs to them, including data that you freely share or allow them to collect. As a result, if and when something goes wrong, they don’t really owe you anything.
Some companies may offer remedies like credit monitoring after the fact and for a certain period of time. But is that really enough to make you feel secure? It’s better to avoid that anxiety in the first place.
What Can you Do?
Hiding from the world is not an option, but there are some steps you can take to make yourself less vulnerable.
- Make your passwords long and a little complicated.
- Use a combination of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and characters, such as appear on above the numbers of your keyboard.
- Avoid readable patterns (like a name).
- Avoid sequences (like years).
- Avoid patterns of all letters followed by all numbers. Mix it up!
- Do not reuse passwords across related entities. In other words, don’t use the same or similar passwords, say, for your credit card accounts and your retirement accounts.
- Do not sign up for websites or apps with Google or Facebook. Make the extra effort to register without sharing that additional piece of your identity.
These guys are out there willing to trade 117 million records for a measly $2,200. Yet, a single victim could experience far more than $2,200 in time lost from work, unauthorized purchases and more.
Are these precautions a lot of extra work on your part? Yes, but you have to look out for yourself!