Monday, 11 November 2013

Staying Safe Online - Internet Security Advice Part I - Passwords

The internet is now a huge part of most people's daily lives, we do our shopping, banking, work and even socialising online, and with estimates of over 2,749 million people now logging on it's no surprise that the growth in identity theft, spam and hacking has soared. 
It's not just individuals who are at risk from cyber criminals, large and well established companies can be victims too. Last month saw software company Adobe fall victim to hackers who revealed millions of users passwords.

An interesting analysis of the exposed passwords revealed a shocking discovery, almost 2 million users had set theirs to '123456' followed closely by '123456789' then simply 'password'.

The rise in social networking has also made identity theft easier as criminal now has access to personal information such as your date of birth, full name, address and other information we often seem happy to publish online which we wouldn't dream of giving to a stranger in real life. 

A great way to look at your personal information is to think would I give this over to a stranger? With some simple personal information and an easily guessable password cyber criminals can access your bank and money, obtain a credit card, buy goods and even apply for a driving license or passport!

To help make your online experience safer and securer, we've put together our top tips to ensure you know don't fall foul to these cyber criminals.

Choosing a password

Given that passwords are used to protect most of your secure information online it's vital you choose them carefully:

  • Don't use a real words, try a combination of letters which would be difficult to guess
  • Make it memorable, this ensures you don't have to write it down or store as a file on your computer
  • Never use information related to you such as a pets, child’s or partner’s name or a postcode or house number
  • Use a combination of upper and lower case, include numbers and try adding non- alphanumeric characters such as brackets or commas.
  • Don't use obvious word or number combinations like birthdays, house address and once you decide on a password don't recycle it like pass1, pass2, pass3
  • Always use separate passwords on your accounts, it means if one is compromised your other accounts are still secure
  • Never reveal your password even if the organisation or individual seems legitimate, and if you are supplied with a password by a company change it straight away.
Hopefully these safety tips will prove useful and help you continue to enjoy using the internet, if you need any more info, there is a wealth of information online and we are always happy to talk about any of your security issues. To get in contact just call: 0845 519 2122 or email  mail@casac.org.uk




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