Only one piece of data is needed to completely take over your life

Scary title, isn’t it?

But it’s true, the only thing an evil hacker needs in order to take over everything you ever touched over the internet is your e-mail password.

Once someone has your e-mail password all he or she needs to do it go to every popular web site and click the “forgot password” link, the web site will than happily send a new password to your inbox the attacker can now read,

So what can you do?

First secure your e-mail password, the one single thing that makes a password secure is to make it very long and hard to guess, this comic will teach you all you need to know about password strength.

Second, keep track of all copies of the password, those copies can exist in an hidden configuration file for your e-mail program or a post-it note on your monitor – each and every one of those copies is a security risk you need to consider (if you want a paper copy of your password that’s ok, just don’t put in on the monitor or under the keyboard, store it in a device designed to secure small pieces of paper you carry with you – your wallet).

And last but not least, turn off any way to access your e-mail you don’t use and turn on any security feature offered by your e-mail service provider (For example, two factor authentication in gmail).

posted @ Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:18 AM

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