Don’t re-use passwords! Use a password manager
In recent months we have been placing a lot of focus in our newsletters and alert services on security, with the mass exposure of private records and data being almost weekly news events.
One of the more common threads from many of these hacks is that often, the breach occurred not because of lax security with the company reporting the breach, but rather a users details were stolen from a smaller, less secure website or service and then used to exploit a larger, more important service.
In the recent and highly publicised Dropbox hack, Dropbox themselves were at no time compromised – another web service with far less security was hacked and then passwords from that site were used to access Dropbox accounts. The huge number of accounts which ended up being compromised through this method show that re-using passwords across multiple services is a common and potentially dangerous practice.
We always recommend that you use unique passwords with your most critical and private information, such as bank accounts. The question is, how do you remember all of these passwords? With more and more of our lives being controlled and run online, a quick survey of your digital life might show 20, 30 or more logins – bank accounts, online shopping, interest group websites, digital subscriptions, the list goes on!
Luckily, there are many applications available to help us manage, use and easily retrieve these passwords, helping to both streamline your online life and keep your personal data secure! The article below from PC Mag is a recent round up of the best and most commonly used password managers. We HIGHLY recommend a read and that everyone investigate using of these solutions!