PROTECT YOUR PASSWORDS AND ONLINE PRIVACY.

There are increasing reports this month of foreign entities having successfully hacked into top secret files of the Defense Department.  The latest, “Anonymous” group announced that it had hacked into the most sensitive files of NATO headquarters,  large corporations, including Japanese technology giant Sony, the U.S. Senate, telecommunications giant AT&T, Fox.com, and other government and private entities. Read more:

Sixteen participants in this bold group were smoked out by federal officials and arrested, but law enforcement officials can’t say if the entire Annonymous cell was captured or not.  Earlier this month the media reported that Pentagon files were once again penetrated by foreign hackers, and insiders say the breach was much more serious than reported.

Women forty years and up, comprise the largest segment of online daily users.  Often women use the same passwords repeatedly on their financial accounts, e-mails, online retail accounts, and even ATM’s.  Defense Department experts say that “cyber wars” are now the new frontier of espionage and countries like China and others employ young guns with computer know-how to work 24-hours a day to steal intellectual property, creative, and security information from the United States.  It has become its own industry.

It is recommended that online users change passwords every couple of months.  If necessary, rather than use the same passwords continually, change them and make a list next to your computer.   Some might feel like writing down passwords is equally compromising.  The truth is, it is highly recommended to “revolve” your passwords and if creating a list is the only way to keep track of your log-ins, it is still much better than having favorites that build a chain of access to all of your most confidential, online information.

 

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Filed under: Featured, Inside The KC, Sonja Eddings Brown by Sonja Eddings Brown, Jul 21, 2011