Another Password Hackathon

It seems as if hardly a week goes by without another report of a website being hacked, of passwords, credit card details, social security numbers, selfies, everything personal becoming available to the masses thanks to the unscrupulous. The latest to be hit is that Internet giant of security, who tend to keep their own security measures very close to their collective chest but are quite happy to collect and use all of your own personal information, Google. It seems that someone managed to get hold of a mass of Google Mail passwords, which means that anyone who can read the files has access to the entire spectrum of Google accounts, from Google Plus right through to YouTube.

The Empire rises and falls on the strength, or intelligence, of its members. And yet, as we all know, it is so simple to be secure. You don’t need weaponry, or even complicated algorithms to protect yourself, just a good, complicated and secure password and the will to change it frequently.

Photo Credit: luxuryluke – Creative Commons

That said, no matter how secure you may believe that password to be, there will always be someone who finds a way to access it. There will always be a leak, a backdoor, a loophole, or even someone disgruntled enough to access the information and sell it to the highest bidder. If governments are quite happy to buy the personal information of errant taxpayers holding Swiss banking accounts, why not ordinary people too?

The answer is simple, and it lies fairly and squarely in the hand of the user: don’t trust anyone. Not even your mother, and most certainly not that new boyfriend who is really interested in having a few intimate selfies sent to him! Change your password frequently, making sure that it is complicated and hard to break, and hope that it is frequent enough to beat those constantly trying to find it, those who have access to what you don’t want them to see.

Love & Kisses, Viki.

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