For 10 days, researchers covertly took control of a botnet and watched how it worked and what information it collected. In the process, they learned that, “the malware problem is essentially a cultural problem.” That’s right folks, it’s not a technology problem, it’s people, it’s us.
While they had visibility to the inner workings of the botnet, the researchers watched the botnet obtain login credentials for more than 300,000 accounts. These credentials gave the botnet owners access to bank and credit card accounts, as well as email, chat, and other social accounts.
Basically, they learned what we’ve all known for awhile now:
- People use easy to crack passwords
- People use the same password for multiple accounts
- People don’t understand how vulnerable they are to attack
Does this sound like you? What can you do to avoid becoming a victim?
Passwords
- Use passwords that are easy to remember but hard to guess.
- Use passwords that are at least 8 characters long.
- Use passwords that use a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols
- One way to do this is to use a pass phrase like, “I like to play golf early in the morning” From this phrase you could create a password such as Il2pg3itm by using the first letter of each word and substitute numbers for words like “to” and 3 for the letter “e”. It’s pretty easy right?
Password Managers
You need to use a different password for each account. This can become tough to manage, so you may want to use a password manager to help make this manageable. That means you had better use a very good password for the manager, or all of you passwords are vulnerable. Here are some password managers you may want to check out:
One of the interesting statistics the researchers published is, “almost 40% of the credentials stolen were from browser password managers.” That means if you are using the built-in password manager on Firefox, Safari, or IE, you may want to think again.
Don’t be a victim. Think of securing your computer and data the same way you remember to secure your home or car. Poor passwords are like leaving the key to your house under the welcome mat. Use a strong password, don’t use the same password for all of your accounts, and use a strong master password for your password manager.
Now you have the tools you need to protect yourself. Take the time to make these simple changes now; it is a lot easier than dealing with theft of your money and identity.
If you are interested in learning more, read the article and the report.
