Staying Safe Online – Password Edition

​The internet has become a vital part of our lives. We do everything from communicate with friends and family, to shopping, to storing copies of our digital memories online, making our data ripe for the picking for would be thieves. The websites where we store our most sensitive data are almost always protected, requiring a username and password to be entered in order to login and gain access. Once logged in however, a wide variety of information is available, including credit card, banking, and even medical records.
 
One habit that puts a majority of users at risk is the re-use of usernames and passwords. It is tempting to use the same combination over and over again, but the problem with this is that if one site is hacked and our login credentials revealed, people will now have the keys to many of our other accounts as well. I once fell victim to this myself, and luckily for me it was simply a music streaming service that was compromised. I was made aware of the intrusion when someone was able to change the music that I was listening to in real time.
 
So how does one avoid re-using passwords while still being able to easily login and access your accounts? Two words: password manager. With a password manager, an app or browser extension generates a unique and complex password for each and every password protected site that you access, and autofill them in for you when prompted at login. Google Chrome users can use the built-in password manager, while folks who use other browsers, or prefer a 3rd party app, can utilize services such as NordPass https://nordpass.com/ .
 
And for really sensitive information such as banking, credit cards, and medical data, I strongly encourage users to utilize 2-Factor authentication. 2-Factor authentication requires an additional step to prove that you are the one who is trying to access a site. After successfully entering your username and password, the site will prompt you for a key that is delivered to you either by text message, phone call, or using an authenticator app. This ensures that even if your password should be learned by someone else, they would also need to have access to your phone in order to login to secure sites. We will dive into more info about 2-Factor authentication in a subsequent post.