- 10/06/2012
- Posted by: Malcolm
- Category: Business / General
A major security breaches have occurred in the USA with consequences affecting Australian Internet users.
Six million user passwords have been leaked on the internet and can now be accessed by criminals. These passwords appear to originate from LInkedIn, therefore if you use LinkedIn you should change your password on that website. If you use the same password on LinkedIn and also on other websites then you should change your passwords on all of these websites. It is also possible that this breach may affect persons who do not use LinkedIn. There have also been 1.5 million passwords stolen from dating site www.eharmony.com and some other sites. Therefore, this would be a good time to remind you to put aside some time and tighten your password security across the websites/systems that you use.
The full news article can be viewed in the Melbourne Age – click here.
Recommendations: The following precautions should be taken as a minimum
Visit the Wikipedia Password Policy webpage for recommendations re setting passwords – click here.
Change your password for LinkedIn and for any other website/system that uses the same password.
Adopt a policy that you will not use the same password across multiple websites. We realise it is difficult to keep track of having many different passwords. Therefore, as a minimum, we recommend that you use different passwords for each website or system that contains sensitive financial or personal data (e.g. banking, credit cards, social media, business accounts, memberships, travel, etc.). If you have other websites which do not contain sensitive information information, you may consider using one or two “favourite” passwords across those websites.
Ensure your anti-virus and security protection system is properly maintained and fully updated.
Identity theft, impersonation and fraud are global problems. Once criminals discover that you have a common password that can access multiple websites, they can progressively access those websites to collate information about you, with consequent risks of fraud etc.. Therefore, we recommend that you should not use the same password across multiple websites.
If you have any questions or require assistance or advice concerning internet security please let us know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_policy