Blog - Integrity Technology Solutions

Your Password was Stolen

Written by Integrity Staff | August 12, 2014 at 4:14 AM

Did you know that your password was stolen?  Chances are, you are among the millions of people that have had their email address, password, credit card, or other information stolen by online attackers.  Is this newsworthy?  Not anymore.

Recently, there was a lot of media attention about the 1.2 billion passwords collected by Russian thieves.  We had debates inside our organization on whether we should take action with a special alert to our IT Services clients in Central Illinois.  We did not because we have been arming our clients all along with the information they need to be proactive with their password management.  

 

In the end, the story sounds like a broken record, but we all need to be prepared to continue hearing it over and over again.  The advice is the same every time it happens.  See below for tips.

 

At this point, chances are very high that your information has already been stolen.  It could have been your credit card in the Target, Lowes, or TJ Maxx attacks recently.  It could have been stolen in the Heartbleed scare this spring.  It could have been stolen in the Apple GotoFail security scare.  Or maybe it was stolen when Adobe, LinkedIn, and E-Harmony exposed passwords of their users.

 

The fact is, we all need to operate under the assumption that our information has been exposed in one way or another and it will continue to occur.

 

What should I do?

  • Create a long, complicated, but easy to remember password, that is difficult for someone to guess
  • Don't share your password or write it down
  • Do not use the same password on multiple sites
  • Change your password periodically on all sites
  • Use a Password Manager

 

If this sounds like a lot of trouble and you have too many websites to remember passwords for already, then stay tuned for our next blog posting on how to make your life a lot easier and more secure at the same time with a password manager.

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