Okay boomers, just a reminder that we need to be more vigilant when working on our computers. Just this past week Charlotte was notified that there was a security breach at an online company she used to make a recent purchase. Does she now just monitor her credit card or replace it? She’ll probably replace it but that will be a pain because many vendors that she uses has her credit card number on record and now she will have to notify all of them that her number has been changed. And which credit card did she use? Better hunt down that receipt although it probably has been shredded at this point–it was a very minor purchase..
In addition to this affront of her space and time, she realized that her G-mail had been hacked this past week, causing much anxiety as to whether anyone in her address list had been compromised. They apparently have not and she changed her G-mail password and everything SHOULD be okay. The key word here is SHOULD! It’s bad enough when you have been compromised but the possibility of bringing others into this through no fault of your own is very upsetting.
So, what can we do??? Stop using technology? Not very practical today–G-mail , Facebook, credit card purchases, online banking and all sorts of transactions requiring passwords are here to stay.
Turns out NBC’s Today Show did a segment on Thursday, January 31st addressing passwords, anti-virus software, firewalls, and clicking on links. To view this very helpful interview on online security, click on Online Security Tips
In addition, here are a few sites that offer tips to help keep us on our toes and safe from these cyber hackers and thieves–an annoying bunch to say the least.
Online Security Measures:
This is a link to an article on how to create strong passwords: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/four-ways-to-strengthen-a-password/
This is a link to an article in PC Magazine describing what they feel are the best password managers and why you need one: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407168,00.asp
For iPhone users, the Keeper app is “… a secure and simple way to store and access passwords and other private information… ” This app costs $9.99 and appears to be well worth the cost: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keeper-password-data-vault/id287170072?mt=8
Credit Card Security Measures:
http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Your-Credit-Card-Number-Safe-While-Shopping
http://genxfinance.com/8-tips-to-keep-your-credit-card-information-safe-when-shopping-online
Monitoring your credit score and report on a regular basis helps to fight identity theft– this is just one of many sites that offers a free credit report: www.annualcreditreport.com
Doing the research for this post has opened our eyes, for sure. Did you know that links can contain invisible malware that will monitor your computer’s keystrokes and steal passwords? It really isn’t all that difficult for a cyber criminal to infiltrate our personal space so we need to make it as difficult as possible. Reading through some or all of the above sites will take some time as will updating your passwords so that they are “strong” and varied–it will be time well spent. We suppose this is one of the prices we all have to pay to have access to technology, which really is a wonderful thing when all is said and done, but it is still frustrating and annoying and a huge time consumer. A big phooey to all you hackers out there!!!!!
Charlotte I am sooo sorry you got “hacked”! It’s happened to me once and once is enough – had to get a new credit card etc. I guess we are all “at risk” – have to just “keep our fingers crossed” at all times. Some brilliant mind will someday figure out a way to keep hackers OUT — and he/she will make a fortune:)
Thank you for this informative article. I have repeatedly warned people on my blog, Baby-Boomers-Retirement.blogspot.com, about the risks they face from cybercrime. However, your security tips have far exceeded anything I have written on the topic. You are welcome to add a link to this post on any of my blog posts that you believe would be relevant! I particularly suggest you add a link to this post after this article of mine: http://baby-boomer-retirement.blogspot.com/2012/07/crimes-against-elderly.html
If you’re a cynical web user when it comes to pcvraiy and security — of course you are, right? — then you’re probably asking yourself whether or not a site where you type in your password to see if it’s been compromised could possibly be legit. But the folks at LastPass ensure that the tool is safe and does not store passwords.Here’s how it works: After typing your LinkedIn password into LastPass’s tool, the service computes its SHA-1 hash and sends the result to LastPass.com. It then searches the list of 6.5 million leaked password hashes.“All that’s communicated to LastPass is the hash ‚c4ee the result of the one-way function performed on the password that a user enters in that box,” a LastPass spokesperson told Mashable. “So let’s say you enter ‘password1.’ You enter it and the tool performs the hashing algorithm. The hash is then sent to LastPass, and if a match is found in the database (of the 6.46 million leaked hashes) on our end, we report back a message saying that your password was compromised.”The spokesperson also noted that the hashes are not stored on its servers: “We don’t store the hash on our end. We only perform the check and then delete it.”Brooklyn developer Chris Shiflett created a near-identical tool called LeakedIn that appears to operate in the exact same way. On his blog, Shiflett discussed how he built the tool to find out his own password was leaked (and subsequently cracked). -4Was this answer helpful?
I’ve seen similar roisricttens but still consider the security sufficient ifa) you have some random login number that you write downb) your account gets blocked after 3 tries.If the login number was your account number it could be used for denial of service, so I prefer a random number.Of course someone could still steal your hashed password from the bank and brute-force it which is easier for simple password.But then this is not much easier than installing a trojan, staging a man in the middle attack or sniff your password by other means.
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