Tag Archive for: Thieves

Hacker shares how easy it is for thieves to steal your passwords

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Do you use the same password for multiple sites on line? If so, you are setting yourself up for hackers to steal your personal information.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There’s a simple way to protect yourself and your money online. Do you know it? 

If pipelines and billion-dollar businesses can be hacked and held for ransom, what chance do you have with your home computer or email? What can you do? Better yet, what should you do? 

A 2019 Google study found that 52% of people use the same password on multiple sites. And 13% of people admitted to using the same password for everything. 

It’s estimated that over 2.5 billion accounts were hacked in 2018, according to the most recent data available. That amounts to roughly 6.85 million accounts getting hacked each day, or 158 every second. 

As more consumers shop online to avoid going into stores, they are becoming easier targets for scammers. According to the FBI, sophisticated criminals are using social media ads and search engine results to trick consumers into visiting these fake shopping websites, where they will have their money and identities stolen. 

The FBI is specifically warning about shopping sites that end with “.club” and “.top” instead of “.com.” The scams range from face masks and other COVID-19 items to fitness equipment and furniture.

RELATED: Why ransomware is so dangerous and hard to stop

So with all these hacks, big pipelines and big companies, how does the average Joe or Jane protect their home computer? 

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How To Protect Your Computer From Viruses And Hackers? Computer Security Explained

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Bad password practices. Data scraping and data dumps. Sidestepping privacy protections. No honor among thieves.

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At a glance.

  • Password users behaving badly.
  • Implications of the Facebook data dump.
  • Sidestepping Apple privacy policies.
  • Crooks mistreating other crooks.
  • Comment on the LinkedIn data scraping incident.

Passwords: out of sight, out of mind. (And out of control.)

There’s a battle raging between two conflicting forces: the need for secure passwords, and the frailty of human memory. The LastPass Blog explores the results of a recent survey they conducted on two thousand Americans and their password habits. While 70% feel they have too many passwords to remember, on average they use the same password over six sites. And with the surge in remote work meaning most individuals need to access various accounts on multiple devices, 65% experience anxiety when they realize they’re using a device that doesn’t have the password they need. SiliconANGLE notes that, according to the Workplace Password Malpractice Report, 62% of US employees write their passwords down on a piece of paper. TechRadar adds that while a whopping 81% store that piece of paper right next to the device the password is meant to protect, and 67% admit they don’t even know where that paper is. Nearly half store their passwords in an unprotected document in the cloud, and troublingly, nearly two-thirds have shared their password with someone via text or email. 

What does the Facebook data leak mean for Facebook users?

Now that the Facebook data leak is front-page news, the big question has become, what can users do if they fear they’re among the half-billion individuals exposed? Forbes explores the difficulty of trying to protect oneself in this type of situation. If it were just passwords that were exposed, changing login info would be an easy fix. But these hackers leaked data like names, birthdates, and addresses — things that are difficult to change on a whim — and all for free. 

CyberNews shares the views of several industry experts. “Putting it out for free also provides some cover should anyone try to trace the stolen data back to its source. Yet another explanation could be that a competing criminal element or other entity put the data out there to demonetize it and take value away from the criminals,” said…

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How to protect your computer files from cyber thieves

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Q. Cyber data security becomes more of a threat daily. What advice may BBB provide on data protection?

A. The possibility of a cyberattack by a foreign country has gone from being the stuff of science fiction to a common threat that is often reported in the news. While it may seem like there is nothing an individual can do to stop a cyberattack, there are some best practices that consumers and businesses can do to help guard against losing important personal information to cyber thieves.

Quite a bit of personal information is already shared on the internet by cell phones, tablets, laptops or any other device that connects through Wi-Fi or an internet provider. These access points make it easier to shop, bank, make travel arrangements, and keep in touch with friends or family. When online, safeguard your information to help avoid scams, fraud, and identity theft. Data Privacy Day is January 28 which is an ideal time to review who has your information. The Better Business Bureau , www.bbb.org and the National Cyber Security Alliance, www.staysafeonline.org offer the following tips to help secure the privacy of critical information:

Share with care. Posts on social media last a long time. Consider who will see the post, how it might be perceived by readers, and what information it might reveal about the individual posting it.

Manage privacy settings. Check the privacy and security settings on web services and apps and set them to your comfort level for information sharing. Each device, application or browser used will have different features to limit how and with whom you share information.

Personal info is like money: Value it. Protect it. Personal information, such as purchase history, IP address, or location, has tremendous value to businesses – just like money. Make informed decisions about whether or not to share data with certain businesses by considering the amount of personal information they are asking for, and weighing it against the benefits you may receive in return.

Make your passwords long and strong. Use long passwords with a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols – eight characters for most accounts, twelve…

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