Prevent the Hack Attack!

Been hacked lately? Received an email containing a strange link? Seen people tagged as shoes on Facebook? Friends stuck in a foreign country and need money? If you don’t take precautions, your accounts could be hacked.

Everyday, people lose control of important online accounts. There are three simple ways to prevent this: better passwords, a password manager, and a security system called two part authentication.

Better Passwords: The first step is to make your passwords harder to crack. Don’t make your password a simple word or phrase; the longer the password, the better; include numbers, capital letters, and punctuation marks; don’t use the same password for everything.

One way to make a stronger password is to base it on a phrase. For example, the first few lines of Browning’s famous poem:

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach,”

This can turn into a password by using the first letters of each word (or some version of them): “HdIlt?Lm123tw.Ilt2td&hMscr,”.

This is a much better password than any single or combination of words –and I will be able to remember it!

Password Managers: Remembering passwords is difficult, but there is a good tool to help you: a password manager program. These programs store all of your passwords securely. Instead of a list of your passwords in a text file or on a scrawled piece hidden under your keyboard, these programs collect and enter passwords in your browser, and even help you to create more complex passwords. So my password can be “eKHnqjnqJCL98bUwrF” because I don’t need to remember it. When I need to use it, my password manager will fill it in for me. I only need to remember the password to that program! I only need one password!

Two popular password manager programs are LassPass and 1Password. Both offer apps for your phones so you can have your passwords in your pocket.

Two Part Authentication: Beyond making your password more secure, the other precaution you should consider is two-part authentication. Two part authentication means that your password is only one part of logging into a site like Facebook, Google, or iCloud. The second part is a code sent to your phone.

Yes, this means revealing your cell phone number. While that may make you nervous, I have not encountered any problems with it and the benefit is additional online security.

After signing up for two-part authentication, the first time you sign back on to your account, you will be asked for your password. After you put it in, a code will be sent to your phone. After you enter the code, you will have access to your account. You don’t need to do this every time you log on. You can indicate that you want to authorize a computer and the system will remember it. However, when you are logging on using a friend’s machine or any other “foreign” computer, you do not click that box, and even if someone gets your password, your account is still safe.

In order to log into your account, a hacker needs your password and the code sent to your phone. A person might hack your password, but will not have your phone. If a hacker is trying to get into your account, you will get a text message with a code. Didn’t request one? You know what is going on: change that password, and stay ahead of the hacker!

Here are links that show you how to set up two-part authentication for Facebook, Google, and iCloud.

Better passwords and two-part authentication will make your accounts less vulnerable to hackers. They are not perfect of fool proof, but why not put secure locks on your valuables?