It’s very common for our personal info to appear in a data breach, including emails and passwords. Sad to say, it’s now a fact of online life. Thankfully, knowing is half the battle. There’s much we can do to protect ourselves.
Here’s what you can do right away:
- Use a STRONG password on your email account. This is your most sensitive, important online account, so it deserves a strong password that you don’t use on any other web sites.
- Subscribe to a free breach notification service. If a web site you use suffers a breach, you’ll receive an alert letting you know. You can then change those passwords. We recommend
Have I Been Pwned
. This is a free service; there’s no catch or upsell. It’s run by a
concerned citizen
looking out for other people online.
Here’s what you can do in the coming weeks:
- Use a password manager app! They make it much easier to create and use long, complex passwords that are unique for each web site you use. Password reuse is a major risk, allowing a breach on one web site to spread to others. Any reputable password manager will do a good job, including
iCloud Keychain
for iOS, Mac and
Google Saved Passwords
for Android, Chrome browser.
- Reset your password on web sites where you’ve used the same password as other sites. Use your password manager to generate new passwords. If you need a password manager, and don't know where to get one, check out our top menu, left side, for APPLICATIONS > RESOURCES > APPS & SOFTWARE TOOLS > PASSWORD MANAGEMENT.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on
web sites that support it
, especially your email account!
This is a lot to tackle all at once. Take it step by step. Please feel free to reply to this topic with any questions. You’ve got this, and we’re here to help.
