Staying secure online

[Athena]

As quite a lot of high profile online services have been breached recently, it's more important that ever to regularly review and change your online passwords, especially to things like email, online banking and social media.

If you're worried about security breaches, there is a handy website where you can enter your email address and it will tell you if any of your personal data has been leaked in the past. You can then take steps to change associated passwords, including on any other sites where you also use the same password.

The site is Have I been pwned? Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach and it highlighted two services I've used in the past that had data breaches with my email address included. Luckily the companies had already notified me in the past of the breach, but not all websites do this.

If you need help thinking of a secure password (because password123 surprisingly is not that secure!) then go to RANDOM.ORG - Password Generator and you can generate any length password. Try to also have different passwords for different sites to stay extra secure.

Hope this helps everyone stay secure online. 🙂 Oh and please don't post your personal data or passwords in this thread, for obvious reasons! 😀

 

[Priceless]

Thanks for this @Athena. I'm one of those people who use a version of the same password for everything, or I simply wouldn't remember all the passwords I'd need 🙂

 

[GwenRaiden]

I just checked the pwned site and all three of my emails were fine. Thank gawd.

All my passwords are caps/numbers/lowercase and always have been. They look like random nonsense but make sense to me!

 

[Blaze]

Thanks for the link Athena! Unfortunately I should be a bit more careful with my passwords. I also tend to have a lot of password repeats (aside from my banking info, which is a completely random password, which I guess is the one that matters most).

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I don't trust other folk to much, so putting many details on-line is a big no no. I wouldn't trust the internet with my details.
I only need two passwords, here and my internet provider.
I take it as similar to putting a line of bank notes from the road to my front door, if you wouldn't risk doing that why do the same sort of things online?
I never pay bills online because if my computer gets a virus and those bills don't get paid, I've got problems.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I never put any financial information on the internet. Too many banks have been hacked and even if you have adequate protection on your end, they don't. I don't order anything on the internet nor do I use eBay or Paypal. According to the pwned site, I have not been hacked.

 

[Priceless]

I always think of myself as a bit of a Luddite where computers are concerned, but I do everything online, banking, order groceries, clothes shopping, in fact most of my shopping is online.

 

[sk]

When I see a site like that my first thought is - what a great front for collecting email addresses to use for spam.

I'm not saying this site does that. It looks legit as far as I can tell.
Many sites have recommend it and the owner is known and all that.

But my internet security starts with not trusting just any site that gets linked to on random forums. 🙂

/SK