5_DSC7781_3872_x_2592 (Photo credit: foxgrrl)
It may have bypassed you that LinkedIn (the last bastion of business to business old boys networking) had its platform hacked and millions of passwords were revealed this week… despite making prime time tv and all the newspapers.. with that in mind are you looking after your social social assets the best you can?
With the plethora of platforms on-line it is a very easy opt out to use the same password for every social media site – which is probably not the best thing you could be doing. We also tend to use the same usernames wherever possible so you are just handing over the keys to your social media safe of contacts and data to anyone who manages to hack just one… if they so desired.
Fortunately I was not one of the ones who received an email suggesting I had been compromised and needed to change my LinkedIn password… were you? However I have included a video on how to change yours below.
I would suggest a system for creating a password… something at the beginning that only you know, followed by something identifying the site and some numbers. That makes it long enough to be difficult to guess now of course that won’t stop the hackers who got the lot but it does protect your other platforms as they will not have the same one.
We spend a very long time creating our social connections on-line and I do recommend you back them up regularly but protecting them by something so simple is a real no brainer too.
On twitter you will often see direct messages suggesting there are some nasty videos, blog posts or pictures of you which is a sure sign the sender has been hacked – do not click through on the link or even worse divulge your password as you will be hacked too and have just shared your login with a spammer or hacker… only use oath systems to do it… in fact I would go further to say use twitter’s login system where you have a choice as it is less intrusive and more stable.
If you think you may be at risk, but have no idea where to start then why not look at the videos below to see how to change your passwords… it’s far better to get your security sorted before it is too late. If your facebook account is hacked by spammers and they go on a rampage you do risk losing the account.
I do wonder what the spammers hope to gain from their mindless madness… after all the majority of content is public knowledge, but I guess they are making us think about security which we should all think about. Of course we should always be mindful of what we share on-line too in this world of transparency as those with a criminal bent have much more chance of stealing our identities the more they know about us… however that is just scaremongering and I believe we will find more and more activities taking place on-line so we should be thinking more about our on-line security settings and taking the few simple steps suggested to look after ourselves. It is a pain to have to reset passwords for forgetting them but if we have a system we shouldn’t have too much difficulty… anyone had any massive problems with security on-line?
xxxxxxxxxx facebook to come…
