Over recent months, hackers have been busy exposing security flaws in some very well known organizations. In most cases, the information stolen from these high profile breaches was then immediately shared on the web. With log-in and personal information taken from sites like Sony, Fox, Nintendo, PBS, AOL and even the CIA (just to name a few) it is entirely possible that one or more of your passwords is now available to millions of people on the internet.
Scared? Hopefully a little bit. In addition to accessing the sites that you have created accounts on, criminals can use that personal information to open bank accounts and get credit cards, loans, state benefits and documents such as passports and driver’s licenses in your name. There are some steps you can take to check on your information and limit any potential issues, but you must act quickly, like now!
A strong password, by definition, is a password that is both complex AND secure (contains numbers, letters, and special characters that do not include personal information such as name or birth date). We should all be using these types of passwords to protect ourselves from potential hackers and thieves, but the sad truth is that most of us are still taking the easy way out. These easy passwords are about as effective as NBC’s late night talk show programming strategy.
