CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS

bykfixer

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Today at work I took on online security course. It tells of the typical things to heed for like don't open emails you find suspicious, don't click on strange links, check address spelling etc, etc.

Each year we do this training. And each year they tell you over and over to change passwords often. Well I did not heed that advice. And my paypal got hacked. Yup. Not badly thank goodness. But there was a pair of transactions that were not in my history yet money was sent to them from the account I use to make payments.

It showed that I bought auto parts, and hired a caterer according to the bank, but not according to my paypal history.

When contacting the folks to state my case they replied "change your password". I already had, but the deal was done already.

Another little trick is when striking keys or touching virtual keys make mistakes. The alanylizers are programmed to recognize combinations we use often. And your Apple or Android devices are no longer safe thanks to thieves using apps disguised as harmless. Games, fancy keyboards, music files, and other seemingly harmless items are being added to app stores and web sites galore. My wife was hacked by a Halloween themed keyboard on her smartphone. We thwarted that one immediately but it was scarey.

Cyber criminals have discovered we don't take the same steps on our mobile devices as we do on our PC's. Why worry? Nobody hacks a celphone, right? Not the case anymore. They don't waste time with viruses because there be cash galore available from smart phone users.

I got lucky and was only out a couple hundred bucks that the bank is making right as I type this. So if you don't make a habit of changing passwords, please start. And don't go from "spring018" to "spring019" for example. Because that is too easy for the criminal to figure out. They've even got stuff that can guess "P3p$!567" these days. So using a combo that mimics a word is no longer safe.

Hackers are getting pretty good. And not just going after the big score anymore. According to the course I took 20 million Starbucks customers had their giftcards hacked. Thieves stole coffee from unsuspecting folks one cup at a time. Or like in my case somebody got $50+ in auto parts from an online parts store purchase while I was sleeping. Somebody else hired an Arbys 1500 miles from me to cater food on superbowl Sunday.

Apparently ransomware crooks used a popular video game app with a slightly different title to gain access to a bunch of peoples data. No longer do they ransom hospitals and large corparations for millions. Instead they go after us regular people for a couple hundred at a time nowadays.

Just be aware that it aint just Windows being targeted anymore and please change your passwords today.
 

SCEMan

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Good advice. My unit belonged to the Cyber Security department and we received regular updates on the latest threats to data (personal & corporate) and the infrastructure power grid. Even had a presentation from Richard A. Clarke when his book Cyber War was released. You can never be too careful today and even if you are, you're bound to be caught in the corporate (Equifax, Target, Home Depot, etc.) hacks sooner or later.
 

Sean

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I'm not understanding how changing your password helps. If they can figure out a really good password today, then how does changing your password keep them from figuring out the new one tomorrow? In other words, how often does one realistically have to keep changing their password to keep ahead of hackers?
 

schuster

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bykfixer

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Good articles.
I tried telling the IT folks at my work that the 90 day thing often leads to "spring17" to "spring18" type passwords.

For me the trick is to look at my surroundings and notice some random object, then use a few letters from that object. Sometimes in reverse. But never have a combo approach that spells the word like c@l3NdeR (calender).

One year I was able to get into the annual training I mentioned above with a combo that spelled "password". But if you ever join a group like LifeLock they make you create ridiculously hard passwords. When you hit enter with ones we may think are strong you get "bzzzz, nope too weak, try again" lol.
 
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