Do you use one password to log into several Web sites? Do some of these sites have important personal and financial details about you? If so, then you’re putting yourself in serious danger. Not convinced? Then check out tech Web site ars technica’s recent story on a password breach at daily deal Web site LivingSocial.com.
Hacked
According to the story, LivingSocial.com — which provides users daily bargains on anything from restaurants and spas to amusement parks and museums — recently suffered a significant security breach. The breach exposed the names, e-mail addresses and password information for up to 50 million LivingSocial users, according to ars technica.
Changing Passwords
But, as the ars technica story illustrates, some users may have responded too late to the password breach. Tim O’Shaughnessy, the chief executive officer of LivingSocial, was quoted after the password breach as telling the site’s users to change their passwords. He also advised users to change their passwords at other sites if these passwords are the same as or similar to the one they were using at LivingSocial. This is useful advice. Even better advice? Never use the same password at different sites to start with.
Change it Up
It can be difficult to remember a large number of passwords. And there are times when you simply want to log onto a site with a password that you’ve used lots of times before because it’s easier than creating, and writing down, a brand-new access code. Don’t fall victim to this urge. If a hacker cracks your password at one site, it’s not very difficult for this cyber criminal to use the same one to get access to your other Web sites, too, if you’re too lazy to create different passwords at different sites. Yes, passwords are imperfect. But the more creative you are with them — including creating separate passwords for each and every site you visit — the better off you’ll be.