5 Ways to Protect Your Accounts from Hackers

5 Ways to Protect Your Accounts from Hackers

Being online puts you and your data at risk, but there are ways you can minimize your risk and make a hacker’s job harder.

Whether it’s Imgur or Uber, new reports of data breaches and hacks seem to come out weekly. You may be tempted to go scorched-earth on your online presence, but deleting every account you have to prevent being hacked is impractical in today’s connected world. Yes, being online puts you and your data at risk, but there are ways you can minimize your risk and make a hacker’s job harder.

Here are four steps you can take to protect your accounts against hacks and data breaches.

  • Keep tabs on what sites may be compromised: Anywhere you have an account could potentially be hacked, so it’s good to stay in the know as to what sites have had breaches or data leaks. You can always do a quick Google, and the site Vigilante.PW maintains a searchable directory of reported hacks and data breaches. If you find a site you use has been compromised, it’s a good idea to change your password for that account.
  • Check whether your accounts have been compromised: The site Have I Been Pwned? is a free resource that allows you to see if an account of yours has been compromised (or “pwned,” an internet term meaning dominated or owned) in a data breach. HIBP collects data (email addresses and usernames, not passwords) from publicly leaked breaches and aggregates it to make it easy to search its database for your email or username. When you enter your email or username, it provides a list of breaches in which your account was found, listing the site, a short summary of the incident and the data that may have been compromised. If you find yourself “pwned,” you should change your passwords to not only the compromised account, but any account that shares that password and your email account as well.
  • Create strong passwords: By now, we should all know that “password1” and “12345678” are two of the easiest passwords to guess and the first hackers will try. Every account you have should use a different password and they should all be as strong as possible. Research shows one good option is long passwords (at least 12 characters) with at least two or three different types of characters (lowercase, uppercase, digits and symbols) put in unpredictable places – no capital letters at the beginning and no digits or symbols lumped at the end. Another good method is to combine partial 2-4 unrelated words together and mix in other types of characters. Your online banking and email accounts should have particularly strong passwords, as they hold your most valuable information.
  • Use a password manager: All of these random, secure passwords may be difficult to remember – it’s helpful to use a password manager like LastPass or Dashlane to keep track of them for you. Many password managers can even generate randomized strong passwords for you and run security audits to let you know when passwords are weak or used across multiple accounts.
  • Enable two-factor authentication: Many sites now offer two-factor authentication as a security measure. You log in with your username and password and are then asked to enter a validation code, usually sent by text message to your phone. In theory, this makes it more difficult for hackers to get in – even if they have your password, they would need the texted code.

About the Author

Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.

Featured

  • Cloud Adoption Gives Way to Hybrid Deployments

    Cloud adoption is growing at an astonishing rate, with Gartner forecasting that worldwide public cloud end-user spending will approach $600 billion by the end of this year—an increase of more than 21% over 2022. McKinsey believes that number could eclipse $1 trillion by the end of the decade, further underscoring the industry’s exponential growth. Read Now

  • AI on the Edge

    Discussions about the merits (or misgivings) around AI (artificial intelligence) are everywhere. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find an article or product literature without mention of it in our industry. If you’re not using AI by now in some capacity, congratulations may be in order since most people are using it in some form daily even without realizing it. Read Now

  • Securing the Future

    In an increasingly turbulent world, chief security officers (CSOs) are facing a multitude of challenges that threaten the stability of businesses worldwide. Read Now

    • Guard Services
  • Security Entrances Move to Center Stage

    Most organizations want to show a friendly face to the public. In today’s world, however, the need to keep people safe and secure has become a prime directive when designing and building facilities of all kinds. Fortunately, there is no need to construct a fortress-like entry that provides that high level of security. Today’s secured entry solutions make it possible to create a welcoming, attractive look and feel at the entry without compromising security. It is for this reason that security entrances have moved to the mainstream. Read Now

Featured Cybersecurity

New Products

  • Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems, an industry-leading manufacturer of pedestrian and vehicle secure entrance control access systems, is pleased to announce the release of its groundbreaking V07 software. The V07 software update is designed specifically to address cybersecurity concerns and will ensure the integrity and confidentiality of Automatic Systems applications. With the new V07 software, updates will be delivered by means of an encrypted file. 3

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction. 3

  • ResponderLink

    ResponderLink

    Shooter Detection Systems (SDS), an Alarm.com company and a global leader in gunshot detection solutions, has introduced ResponderLink, a groundbreaking new 911 notification service for gunshot events. ResponderLink completes the circle from detection to 911 notification to first responder awareness, giving law enforcement enhanced situational intelligence they urgently need to save lives. Integrating SDS’s proven gunshot detection system with Noonlight’s SendPolice platform, ResponderLink is the first solution to automatically deliver real-time gunshot detection data to 911 call centers and first responders. When shots are detected, the 911 dispatching center, also known as the Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP, is contacted based on the gunfire location, enabling faster initiation of life-saving emergency protocols. 3