"Treat your password like you treat your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months."
- Clifford Stoll
Online protection is never a guarantee. Even high-profile businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have fallen prey to sophisticated hacking within the past two months. 250,000 passwords were stolen as a result of the Twitter hack. Twitter acted fast and forced the compromised users to change their passwords. Their Twitter accounts have been secured, but these users may still be in danger if they practice password reuse. Having a single password compromised can compromise your entire online identity if you use the same username and password for Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and online banking. While it is important to have secure passwords that can't be guessed algorithmically, it is even more important to have a unique password for each online account.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/02/rising-computer-hack-attacks-prompts-concern/
I wonder how long it will take for this to sink in. It's one of those things that so many people know they should do, but until they get burned, they're not going to do it.
ReplyDeleteYeah... I know that I definitely fall into that category... I haven't changed my passwords for years... although I do at least use different ones for different levels of security.
DeleteOh, no! I did not know that 250,000 passwords were stolen on Twitter. I will be more careful with my passwords by changing it every month and avoid using the same password for different online. Thank you for warning me!
ReplyDelete