Get Tough with Tougher Passwords

Over my years online and also advising people on their computer setups, I have seen some very concerning things. People writing down their passwords in books, on little slips of paper in their purses and wallets or even in their notepad on their computer.

Using a strong password will make your online accounts a lot tougher for strangers to hack. It is essential you protect your online accounts, things like email, social media and online banking for example. Never fall into the trap of using the same password for everything either. Check out the tips below to get on the right path.

If you want some added protection when browsing online, consider using a VPN such as NordVPN.

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Do you write down your Passwords ?

Being careful with your passwords is very important. In this video I tell you an almost unbelievable story, that hopefully you can learn not to follow the same path.

Hacking Prevention with Passwords

The amount of hassle you will face if someone guesses your password and gains access to your mobile phone and/or online accounts is no joke. In this video I discuss various password tips, tricks and advice.

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Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

"I've certainly seen them ask for passwords," said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We push back."

A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies "really heavily scrutinize" these requests, the person said. "There's a lot of 'over my dead body.'"

Some of the government orders demand not only a user's password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts...

Read the full story here. Source: CNET

Battle.net hacked, Blizzard says change your password

World of Warcraft-mongers Blizzard have been hacked, with the company's Battle.net system broken into and customer emails compromised.

Blizzard fessed up to the security breach in a statement posted to its site, where it explains that a list of email address for global Battle.net customers outside of China has been accessed by digital ne'er-do-wells.

President and co-founder Mike Morhaime says the company has found "no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses or real names were compromised," but notes that the investigation is ongoing.

Scrambled passwords, answers to security questions and mobile and dial-in authenticator data for players dwelling on North American servers (that's generally gamers from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia) were also accessed, but the Blizzard boss says that the leaked information isn't enough to let anyone take control of a Battle.net account.

That's a drop of good news, but Battle.net members, who use the platform to play World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, may find their emails used in phishing scams that persuade the account holder to fork over passwords or other information. Blizzard won't ever ask for your password via email, so be wary, gaming fans.

Gamers may also be irked to learn that Blizzard detected the breach on 4 August, but waited until 9 August to notify the community. It says its "first priority was to re-secure our network," though in those intervening days customers may have been subjected to targeted phishing scams that they wouldn't have been on guard for.

Players on North American servers will be prompted to change their secret questions and answers over coming days, while the official advice for gamers on those servers is to change your password, which you can do here. Blizzard also notes that if you've used the same or similar passwords elsewhere, it might be an idea to change them as well.

The Orc-spawning organisation says that in the wake of the attack it closed off access and has started "working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened."

With breaches of this sort seemingly becoming more and more common, customers understandably want reassurance that big companies have their data safely stowed away. Apple recently turned off the ability to reset passwords over the phone after it was revealed that malevolent hackers could take control of an iCloud account with only a few bits of personal information.

[Source: cnet]

Dropbox sends password change notification to some users

In a blog post today, Dropbox's VP of engineering Aditya Agarwal explained that the online storage company is addressing some key security concerns in the wake of some concerning incidents. Some Dropbox users saw a spike in spam messages to their registered email accounts over the past few weeks, which drove an internal investigation.

The spam emails turned out to be the result of a breach of an employee's Dropbox account, which contained a project file with some user contact information. The employee's account info had been stolen from a third-party website that was compromised -- which points out the necessity of having password diversity among your web service accounts, rather than using the same password for all of them.

To help protect against future security issues, Dropbox is implementing some policy and technical changes immediately, and also rolling out others over the next few weeks. Two-factor authentication is one of the future changes, similar to what Google has already implemented for Gmail accounts; users will be able to validate password changes with a separate fact or via a cellphone verification pass.

In the meantime, some Dropbox users who have never changed their password or who have an easily crackable password will be getting email reminders to change their password. These emails may appear suspicious, but they are coming from Dropbox (and you should double-check, should you receive one, that you're directed to a Dropbox reset page). When you pick a new password, you can make it extra secure by using a random generation system like Diceware -- endorsed by the makers of 1Passwordand XKCD alike.

[Source: TUAW]