Time to Update Your Passwords Again

Are you using strong passwords? Are you using different passwords for every site you use? It’s time to make that happen.

The world has just been hit again with another criminal theft of passwords, usernames and emails. This time by a Russian gang. Hold Security has just exposed the security breach. 1.2 billion user name and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses have been stolen!

You need to change your passwords, particularly for any site where you keep financial information such as a credit card. But sites like Twitter and Facebook are vulnerable too because your sign-in information can be sold to companies who want to use those platforms to send out spam.

Although it costs money, you should definitely consider a password manager like Agile Bits 1Password. Password managers create unique passwords for every site and store them safely for you. To cover both Mac and Windows: $100 for 5 users in family for Mac. For just Mac or Windows, $70 for 5 users. One user is $50.

If you are concerned about the security of password managers, here is a good discussion on Information Security Stack Exchange, a question and answer site for Information security professionals.

If you prefer to create passwords yourself, find a safe place to store them and use anagrams.

For instance,
My dog Benny died in 1980
becomes
mdBdi1980
then add some characters
mdBdi1980#%

More information about this story at
The New York Times

If you are on Kauai, hopefully, you are in my Social Media for Business classes. Passwords are one of the things we cover.