Security Advice for your Online Accounts

As an IT security administrator, I've picked up a few tricks over the years to help keep accounts secure from hackers and phishers. Security Breaches happen every day. By following these points of advice, you avoid becoming a victim or at least isolate the damage.

1. Open a "junk mail" account. So many forms require you to fill in an email account. This is how you get spammed. Set up an account with a free email service like Yahoo, Google or MSN that you use only for online forms and account registrations.
   
   
2. Don't save your password file in the clear. If someone gets their hands on it, you're toast. Encrypt it first. Even if you have a Word document with your passwords in it, password protect this one file with a password you won't forget. (File | Save As | Tools | General Options). If you write your passwords on a piece of paper, keep it in safe. If you don't have a safe, don't write your passwords directly. For example, if your Facebook password is "516happy" write down "Mom & Dad's house number + weekend feeling".
   
   
3. Backup your password file and keep it in another safe place. Although having an extra copy is a liability, it is is offset by knowing which account passwords you need to change if your password list is lost, stolen, corrupted or compromised.
   
   
4. Most people use one password for everything. Bad idea. If someone hacks into a company you have an account with and finds your user name, password, and email for that site, the first thing they'll try is logging into that listed email with that listed password. Once they have your email, they can reset any of your other accounts with the "Forgot your Password?" button which as you know emails a temporary password or a verification link to your email. You need at least three passwords: One for all your email accounts, one for all your financial accounts, and one for everything else.
   
   
5. When choosing a password, use something you can remember and yet is secure. Most sites have common minimum requirements for a password (every once in a while an account admin gets a God complex and has some silly obscure requirements which means you end up with a password like A5fjk32sx). I recommend creating passwords that are exactly 8 characters. Perhaps use a six letter word starting with or ending with 2 numbers (e.g. 13powder or worlds11) or use an eight letter word replacing the vowels with numbers (e.g. gr33nf0x for greenfox - a=9, E=3, i=1, o=0 (zero), u=6, y=7).
   
   
6. Update your passwords from time to time. I know it's work, but it's worth the effort every year. You can make it easier on yourself by rotating the numbers by some amount. For example, if your password is guitar10, keep adding 10 to it, so next year's passwords are guitar20 and so on.
   
   
7. Never navigate to a site from a link in an email. Copy and paste the link from your email into your browser, or type the site name directly into the browser. Also, ignore any email that claims to need you to reset your password or enter any other personally identifiable information. A legitimate site wouldn't need this because they already have it, or they would wait for your next login and then require the update or change at that time.
   
   
8. Before entering any credit card info or your social security number on a site, make sure your browser shows a padlock icon and that the web address starts with "https://". If it doesn't, move on.
   
   
9. Google yourself from time to time. It's not vain, it's PR. You need to know what's out there about yourself. You can't fix what you don't know. You can also manage information sharing. Most accounts allow you to control what information is public, what is private and what is protected. For blogs or other publicly shared information, it helps to have a pseudonym (pen name).
   
   
10. Finally, install good security software on all your PCs. Your Internet Service Provider may offer you free software, so look into it! Avoid pirating software. Not because it's wrong to do so (even though it is), but because it's dirtier than a cheap motel.
    

Hope that helps! Happy safe surfing!