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Ch@ng3 3v3ry 0n3 0f y0ur p@$$w)rd$, @g@1n!
11 years ago
Because online transactions are 1n$3cur3.
I am figuring out what steps are necessary to close every online bill payment option I have used, clear all bank account and credit card information from the online record, and go back to using paper bills, paper checks, envelopes and stamps. I'm fed up.
When we're all being advised to change all our passwords again because hackers stole thousands or a billion username/password combinations for the third time in the span of a year, I no longer trust any online bill collection system. My answer is to take as much of that stuff back offline as possible.
I am figuring out what steps are necessary to close every online bill payment option I have used, clear all bank account and credit card information from the online record, and go back to using paper bills, paper checks, envelopes and stamps. I'm fed up.
When we're all being advised to change all our passwords again because hackers stole thousands or a billion username/password combinations for the third time in the span of a year, I no longer trust any online bill collection system. My answer is to take as much of that stuff back offline as possible.
The bank's tellers and ATM machines are pretty secure. Just have to be watchful for card skimmers* on the card slots. Pretty much ATM machines in the US and canada are secure when traveling. If outside those countries, and not in the EU (where you pretty much have to get a chip and pin card issued by your US bank before traveling if you want money anywhere that is not an airport) ATM machines in the third world are iffy, contact your bank's antifraud department for advice on keeping your banking secure when traveling to [specific country].
* Card skimmers are things that look like a little plastic frame that is stuck onto the card slot opening and it reads the magnetic stripe information as you insert and remove your card. this allows the bad guys to replicate your ATM card. The tiny video camera aimed at the keypad captures your PIN as you type it. Now they can drain your bank account as they desire. You may notice that there is a light up LED frame around the card slot of your bank's ATM. This is actually a security feature so they can notice on the security camera footage when it got placed and get a good photo for prosecution purposes. card skimmers are amazingly tiny, and are designed to look like an original part of the ATM machine, so notice the details on your bank's machines and be cautious if you notice a change in just the card slot region.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archi....._billion_.html
The timing is also suspicious and may have a political element; coming as it does at the height of anti-Russian propaganda being pushed by political leaders of both parties.
Then again, it's never a bad thing to change your passwords on a regular basis. And they don't have to be ridiculously complex or hard to type, as this XKCE comic demonstrates:
http://preshing.com/20110811/xkcd-p.....ord-generator/
You can test your passwords here:
https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
For example, in the best (and most unlikely) hacking scenario, "Ch@ng3 y0ur p@$$w)rd$" would take about 1 million trillion centuries to hack. While a password phrase like "Pony.Tardis.Blue.Doctor" would take 7 hundred million trillion centuries to crack. The timeframe here may be moot, since both are difficult passwords for machines to "guess." But the second one is clearly easier to remember.