Passwords are no longer sufficient to protect you.
Through 20 years of effort, we have successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for a computer to guess.
Reinforce your passwords by the addition of 2FA (Second Factor Authentication) for all your valuable online services. It is offered for free by most reputable providers.
What are ‘valuable online services’?
Probably your bank would be at the top of the list. All of these already require second factor (2FA) such as a token or mobile app to protect your account.
Your email address is almost as valuable as your bank. If your email is hi-jacked the fraudster can easily impersonate you and start to empty your bank account or borrow money on your behalf.
Any service where you have a credit card logged – for instance that large online seller which is named after a South American river …
Any other finance-related provider such as Paypal
Social media accounts. Think what would happen if yours was taken over by some random trickster.
If any of the above providers do not offer you the option of 2FA (Second Factor Authentication) or MFA (multi-factor authentication) then change the provider!
Do you use the same or similar passwords for all your other online services? This is a bad idea. It is now a common occurrence for online services to be hacked and their credential stores stolen and sold on the dark web which puts your password scheme in the hands of criminals, providing them with more ways to impersonate you.
No-one can remember 100’s of complex passwords. The only way to use passwords safely is to use a Password Manager to generate and store unique passwords for each service. They are free, easy to use, secure, and don’t get in the way of your day-to-day online life. See the image above for a few Password Manager services.
On your mobile phone – use the six-digit PIN, and enable remote wipe to give you peace of mind in the (likely?) event your phone is lost or stolen.
On your mobile phone – use the six-digit PIN, and enable remote wipe to give you peace of mind in the (likely?) event your phone is lost or stolen.
Don’t become another random victim of ID theft and the fraud that results. Use 2FA and a Password Manager. It just makes sense!