Passwords

[pauland]

I get no end of dodgy emails wanting me to donate to a blockchain account because my computer has been taken over and they have recorded me doing unmentionable things if I don't do so.

Today I had one that says the usual stuff, but this one is slightly different - it includes a password.
I generally don't use the same password, if I need to create a password for some account, I make different ones according to a pattern. The one included with the dodgy email included a password that fitted the pattern that I use, so I know that some company or organisation has been hacked and my details stolen - worse still they didn't encrypt the password.

Because I use a different password every time, that password won't allow access to other accounts, so it's not such a big deal.

I think my hacked password is from linkedin - they were hacked in 2012 and thousands of people had their details passed to Russian criminals.

The moral of all this is that if you use one password for everything, the bad guys only need to find out your password once to get access to all your accounts. Don't use one password for everything.

Check here: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
My email address has been used in four hacked companies I know of. There may be more.

Paul

[gwpriester]

Yoiks! I try to use two step when it is available. Is that better.

[pauland]

Yoiks! I try to use two step when it is available. Is that better.

Definitely.

My daughter had 11 sites mentioned as being compromised.

My four were Adobe, Linkedin, DropBox and Kickstarter.

So many people use the same password for everything.

[gwpriester]

I had Adobe flagged by BitDefender Armor.

[pauland]

I knew about the Adobe hack - it was several years ago and much publicised. Adobe emailed me to tell me about it and I think they locked the passwords until a new one was set up.

[Cloud]

I really find it strange when people use the same password for everything. I also find it strange when people store their passwords on a device connected to the internet. My suggestion: create complex passwords and then write them down, that's right, write them down on a piece of paper, make some copies and put them in various places around your home. Then also use 2 step verification. Who's going to hack your piece of paper?