Secure your on-line identity
Thursday, March 4. 2010
Recently on twitter I saw some 'tweeters' I knew of sending me garbage tweets and I asked them directly on Twitter "Did you send this"?
The answer was "no" and asked on Tweeter how come this is happening?
One answer was hackers trying to look for accounts they can break into. Another said that she was phished recently?
This reminds me of customers asking me did my account get hacked?
Seems like old habits die hard. Hackers are still trying to steal your online identity without a doubt.
As I pointed out at an evening presentation on 1 March 2010 do not make it easy for hackers to access 'crack' your password.
What is meant by that?
Let's examine 4 layers of password.
Level 1 - The Easy password
bear husband LOVER 19590112 &*)%%%!@!@
possible passwords but the one think they have in common is that a password cracker can most likely decode these.
Level 2 - Mixing 2 cases
Bear Dave bear123 !forget !$5%7*
All right maybe a little tough but the first 3 might be decodeable
Level 3 - Mixing 3 cases
SandyX45 1)2(abc Day$%^ q1@w3$
Maybe these are tougher but better yet
Level 4 - Mixing 4 cases
2@4$Date 6^Gu3T0 Gr3Ym!m!
Good luck cracking those .
For further information on security , check out http://www.grc.com/ and http://www.securityfocus.com/
For examples on phishing go to http://www.nk.ca/blog/index.php?/categories/25-Phish
What to do if you think you have been compromised
1) Update then run your anti-virus!! Most anti-viral programmes come with some ant-spyware. The key is update all definitions daily!
2) Run anti-spyware programmes. There are other malicious software (malware) that anti-viral programmes will not pick up.
I recommend you at least run 3
a) Superantispyware found at http://www.superantispyware.com/
b) Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware found at http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
c) Spybot - Search & Destroy found at http://www.safer-networking.org/
These 3 programmes will find malicious software that is not viral yet can compromise your security. Again please update these daily.
The answer was "no" and asked on Tweeter how come this is happening?
One answer was hackers trying to look for accounts they can break into. Another said that she was phished recently?
This reminds me of customers asking me did my account get hacked?
Seems like old habits die hard. Hackers are still trying to steal your online identity without a doubt.
As I pointed out at an evening presentation on 1 March 2010 do not make it easy for hackers to access 'crack' your password.
What is meant by that?
Let's examine 4 layers of password.
Level 1 - The Easy password
bear husband LOVER 19590112 &*)%%%!@!@
possible passwords but the one think they have in common is that a password cracker can most likely decode these.
Level 2 - Mixing 2 cases
Bear Dave bear123 !forget !$5%7*
All right maybe a little tough but the first 3 might be decodeable
Level 3 - Mixing 3 cases
SandyX45 1)2(abc Day$%^ q1@w3$
Maybe these are tougher but better yet
Level 4 - Mixing 4 cases
2@4$Date 6^Gu3T0 Gr3Ym!m!
Good luck cracking those .
For further information on security , check out http://www.grc.com/ and http://www.securityfocus.com/
For examples on phishing go to http://www.nk.ca/blog/index.php?/categories/25-Phish
What to do if you think you have been compromised
1) Update then run your anti-virus!! Most anti-viral programmes come with some ant-spyware. The key is update all definitions daily!
2) Run anti-spyware programmes. There are other malicious software (malware) that anti-viral programmes will not pick up.
I recommend you at least run 3
a) Superantispyware found at http://www.superantispyware.com/
b) Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware found at http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
c) Spybot - Search & Destroy found at http://www.safer-networking.org/
These 3 programmes will find malicious software that is not viral yet can compromise your security. Again please update these daily.
