Passwords Archives

The Dark Web – 3 Things You Need To Know

October 20, 2022 By Dominick

You’ve heard the term “Dark Web” before but what exactly is it? Are you at risk? What can you do if your information is leaked? Read on, I’ll tell you everything you need to know. It’s mysterious and dark. But you can protect yourself.

Dark web, identity theft, hackers, hacking

What Is The Dark Web?

The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets, internet sites you cannot access through a normal browser. You need to go through overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. There is a lot of privacy and anonymity that comes with using the dark web compared to traditional websites which is what makes it so intriguing to certain individuals.

On the “surface web” when you use browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, or Microsoft Edge, etc and you may be tracked. Hackers and certain individuals seek anonymity so they go into the Dark Web. The tracking there is not stored on one data base. That tracking is shared across thousands of computers across the web. Thereby it’s nearly impossible to track the source.

The dark web was originally created and used by the United States Department of Defense. The idea was to communicate anonymously. The dark web has now become a hub for users wishing to remain anonymous around the world. People can use the dark web for both legal and illegal purposes.

Is My Information On The Dark Web?

There are a few ways you can tell if your data is on the dark web. You can get a dark web scan with some credit bureaus like Experian. Additionally, if your data winds up on the dark web, you can find out by checking the “Have I Been Pwned” (HIBP) website. It’s a free service, and all you have to do is conduct a search using your email address or phone number.

What Can I Do About My Information Being On The Dark Web?

If a dark web scan reveals your information is available online: Here’s what to Do:

Change Your Passwords immediately.
Add Two-Step Authentication to Your Accounts where applicable.
Try to Add SIM-Swapping Protection to Your Phone so a hacker cannot take control of your phone number and use the secure code to break into your account.
Report the Theft of Your Personal and Account Information to your bank or any other important accounts.
Freeze Your Credit on all three bureaus.
Stay Proactive, if you are made aware of a breach, take action before anything happens. Have monthly reports of SSN alerts, many institutions offer this service at little to no cost.

This is not to scare you. It’s not to steer you away from internet. I provide you the necessary information to keep you and your personal data safe and secure. Every day the government and institutions work to keep your data safe. Hackers however work twice as hard to continue to steal and leak your information. Being proactive and taking the time to make sure your information is safe is a small use of your time that will go a long way in the long run.

If you need any help navigating protective measures, or, if you feel your data has been leaked and are not sure what to do about it, contact me for further assistance.

Reach Dominick

The Best Way To Keep Your Passwords Safe

July 9, 2022 By Dominick

Changing the passwords regularly seems like a tedious and daunting. But it is in your best interest. Your computer has sensitive and important information. If your credentials are in the wrong hands the damage will be a burden, costly and time consuming to repair. Hackers are becoming more advanced and always have new tricks. We’re now seeing more and more major data breaches such as the recent T-Mobile breach.

Password stolen — Learn best practices for keeping your sensitive information safe and secure from getting into the wrong hands.

Changing your credentials regularly reduces your risk of exposure. Think about how we use the internet. It’s an integral part of our daily routines. We shop online, email, check our bank accounts, pay bills, watch TV, schedule doctors appointments and much more. Are you using the same password for multiple accounts? If you get hacked and you have reused credentials other accounts are at risk.

Why you should be changing your passwords
When you should be changing your passwords
Password best practices
Offering help and resource to help you manage your passwords.

Why Change Credentials?

If you use the same password for multiple accounts it can lead to multiple hacks across all your accounts. What a headache that would be.

Prevents use of saved passwords in the case of a lost or changed computer. It’s convenient now to saved passwords. Just click and the save automatically. What if your computer is lost or stolen ? AYour sensitive data is now being accessed by someone. Changing your passwords will relieve your worries. Those saved passwords are irrelevant. You’re protected.

Prevents consistent access to your accounts. If a hacker gains access to your account they may just take what they want and leave. But sometimes hackers continue to access different accounts and information about you over time to steal your identity. Prevent this. Have multiple passwords and change them frequently.

When Should I Change It?

Have you logged in recently? I s that the first password ever used? A stagnant account is subject to a hacker gaining access. If you u haven’t used an account in a year consider deleting the account if it is going unused or simply update your password.

It’s too simple and personal to you. As stated above it has only been recently that accounts are encouraging us to use strong passwords and if yours is too weak it can easily be subject to hacking or if your password is too personal such as a birthday, children’s name or address.

Change credentials immediately If you are made aware of a data breach consider. When the T-Mobile data breach occurred millions of T-Mobile customers had personal data exposed. T-Mobile encouraged changing passwords to make sure customer information and identity was safeguarded.

Shared access. If you have shared your account login with someone. IE: Netflix or Hulu. It’s a good idea to change your credentials to avoid them getting into any of your other accounts.

Logging in at public places. After you’ve logged into one of your accounts at a public place, such as a library computer, it is good practice to update those credentials. If you do, you’ll avoid leaving a digital footprint behind for someone to access.

When you discover malware or if your computer had a virus. You want to keep your information safe and switch them out. Hackers will give your computer a virus to gain access and steal information. A virus can expose your sensitive information.

Best Practices

Now that you’ve learned why and when you should change your password let’s talk about best practices for your password so that you can always be protected.

Use two-factor authentication when applicable. This means to access your account your account you’ll have to go through a two step process such as a regular login and then a one-time code optin sent through text or email.

Audit your passwords. Don’t use the same passwords for multiple accounts. Don’t include your name or a series of numbers in a sequence (i.e 1234). Make them are long and varied. Always have an uppercase, a lowercase, a numeral and a special character. Example: “password” become’ “p@ssW0rD”

Stronger password? The less you have to change it. Before, it was said that you should be changing your passwords every 90 days but with all the accounts we now hold who knows how long that would take us! Recent data has now shown that a unique, strong password doesn’t need to be changed as frequently. Having said that if you find yourself in any situations mentioned above you should change your password at that time.

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Make LastPass, your new best friend. LastPass can be used on your computer and your iPhone. Have all your passwords in one place. Never lose or forget your password again!

Now with this knowledge hopefully you’ll know how to protect yourself from any cyber attack and keep you information safe. If you want to learn more about Lastpass or you need help installing contact me below.

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All This Talk About ‘Passwords’ Is Driving Me Nuts – I’m Happy to be Nuts :)

September 17, 2015 By bytesized

The New York Times ran the following article about the theft of more than a billion, yes, billion with a “B”, sets of internet credentials. Those would be username/password combinations like you use daily to access sensitive information everywhere. Sadly, the article says “There is worry among some in the security community that keep personal information out of the hands of thieves is increasingly a losing battle”. Read the original NYTimes.com article below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/technology/russian-gang-said-to-amass-more-than-a-billion-stolen-internet-credentials.html?ref=technology

With this in mind, please take a moment and think about what I have written below.

Most every day I get engaged in conversations that go much like this:

You: Should I change my password?
Me: Yes.

You: But I will never remember the new password. Plus all the rules are complex, and I’ve also learned that I should have a different password for every site.
Me: Yes, I’ll show you how and it will be simple and it only takes three minutes to learn and only takes three steps to complete.

Here’s a way to have a strong, secure and unique password for each site.

Let’s assume you want a new password for Yahoo.com.

First, pick a ‘typical’ password you can always remember. As an example, let’s use ‘baseball’. this doubleword will serve as the base of our password. This stays the same for every site.
Next, let’s use ‘123’ for the beginning and ‘$$$’ for the ending. This also stays the same for every site
Last, we’ll insert ‘YAHOO’ within ‘baseball’ (using all capital letters). This changes based on site.

Therefore,

The YAHOO password has now become, 123baseYAHOOball$$$
For GMAIL, this same scheme has become, 123baseGMAILball$$$
And for AMAZON, this same scheme has become, 123baseAMAZONball$$$

Trust me these unique passwords are quite secure. They contain numerals, capital letters, special characters and are very long. Also importantly they are easy for you to remember and reconstruct. You can check the strength at sites like https://howsecureismypassword.net/

You’ve heard enough about why you need to change your passwords, but, if you If you need additional reading material, take a look at this NBCNews article http://nbcnews.to/1o3XAv8 It outlines the prevalent attitude behind not changing passwords along with the fact that 18% of internet users have been hacked online.

As an aside, next time we speak, ask me about my Starbucks card hacking story, it’s actually amusing.

OK, time for some coffee now.