Are you sloppy with your online passwords? It’s time to change your habits
Business Technology | May 23, 2013
It’s a mistake too many of us make. We get lazy, and we depend upon just one single password to access several different Web sites. This, though, is a unsafe strategy. A recent story by ars technica on a serious password breach at daily deals site LivingSocial.com explains just why this is.
Hacked
According to the story, hackers were able to get access to the password information of up to 50 million users of LivingSocial. This breach gave hackers access to the names and e-mail addresses, too, of these users. Needless to say, a lot of LivingSocial users went scurrying to switch their passwords.
Too Little, Too Late?
After the breach, Tim O’Shaughnessy, chief executive officer of LivingSocial.com, recommended the site’s users change the passwords they use to gain access to the deals site. He also recommended that users change any passwords which they use to access other sites that are the same or similar to what they use to log into LivingSocial. This, as ars technica reports, is a bit of an understatement. If you use a similar password to log onto Netflix, LivingSocial.com and your online bank, stop reading this article and immediately change these passwords. And do yourself a favor — never reuse a password from one site at another.
A Hassle, But Important
It can be challenging to recall dozens of passwords. And there are times when you just 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 prey to this temptation. If a hacker cracks your password at one site, it’s not overly hard for this cyber criminal to use the same one to gain access to your other Web sites, too, if you’re too lazy to create unique passwords at different sites. Yes, passwords are fallible. Even so the more creative you are with them — and this includes creating separate passwords for each and every site you visit — the better off you’ll be.
It’s a mistake too many of us make. We get lazy, and we depend upon just one single password to access several different Web sites. This, though, is a unsafe strategy. A recent story by ars technica on a serious password breach at daily deals site LivingSocial.com explains just why this is.
Hacked
According to the story, hackers were able to get access to the password information of up to 50 million users of LivingSocial. This breach gave hackers access to the names and e-mail addresses, too, of these users. Needless to say, a lot of LivingSocial users went scurrying to switch their passwords.
Too Little, Too Late?
After the breach, Tim O’Shaughnessy, chief executive officer of LivingSocial.com, recommended the site’s users change the passwords they use to gain access to the deals site. He also recommended that users change any passwords which they use to access other sites that are the same or similar to what they use to log into LivingSocial. This, as ars technica reports, is a bit of an understatement. If you use a similar password to log onto Netflix, LivingSocial.com and your online bank, stop reading this article and immediately change these passwords. And do yourself a favor — never reuse a password from one site at another.
A Hassle, But Important
It can be challenging to recall dozens of passwords. And there are times when you just 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 prey to this temptation. If a hacker cracks your password at one site, it’s not overly hard for this cyber criminal to use the same one to gain access to your other Web sites, too, if you’re too lazy to create unique passwords at different sites. Yes, passwords are fallible. Even so the more creative you are with them — and this includes creating separate passwords for each and every site you visit — the better off you’ll be.