Online security is very important, especially with bank, credit card, utilities, and other important accounts being available through the internet. So, what is the worst thing you can do online in regards to your security? What’s the one thing responsible for more hacked and stolen accounts than anything else?
I bet you think it’s one of the following instances: not using an anti-virus program, not having a complicated enough password, or using unsecured Wi-Fi. NOPE. The worst thing you can do online, in terms of security, is using the same password for all of your accounts.
Why is this such a danger? All websites employ security procedures to avoid being hacked, but server exploits, careless administrators or new bugs make perfection an impossible goal. So, what happens is you sign up for every site using the same e-mail and password, and one day, your otherwise unimportant shopper’s club card account gets hacked. Now, the hackers try the password they retrieved from that card’s website on banking sites, credit card site log-ins, and all kinds of other secure sites. If you’re using the same password everywhere, you’ve just given them the master key to your digital life.
So what can you do to have unique passwords? You can use a password safe, like KeePass, which will remember all of your passwords and allow you to generate secure, random passwords. These types of programs store an encrypted password file on your computer that you open to show the password for each site. It may take you a minute longer to log in, but it will save you a huge amount of agony by safeguarding your online identity.
-Tim
Tags: identity theft, online safety, password, password security, password theft
Along the same line as your feature article today how safe do you feel it is storing your signons and passwords in RoboForm? There are two options, one is to store it on your PC locally or on the cloud in which case you can access your passwords from multiple PCs.
I understand that programs that store all your passwords are a good thing, but if you need one password to enter the site, isn’t that the same thing as having one password for all the web sites requiring a password ? A hacker that discovers your special password will have free access. What I do is have several pass words that mean something to me, I write them down and keep them in a secure place,BUT, I only write down the first and last letters. for instance, if the password is bigsky, I write only ” bs “