Your Digital Footprint is Bigger than you Think...

Dear Readers,

How many digital accounts do you currently have? Do you use the same email and password when you create a new account?

Let’s talk about the risks posed by these accounts and how we can avoid them.

How many digital accounts does the average person have?

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Gmail, Outlook, Banking (4), Credit Cards (5), Southwest, Verizon, Apple Music, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Lyft, Uber, Apple, and on and on and on.

Each of us can easily name well over twenty accounts that required our name, address, phone number, date of birth, email, username, and a unique password.

FYI the average person has 100 passwords. Check it out.

What are the risks?

Can you keep up with 100 of anything? How many of those accounts have the same password and email??

So if your credentials are leaked in one breach then malicious persons will be able to access all your other accounts. These credentials are saved for all of your accounts, even the ones you don’t use anymore, waiting to be exposed.

Keep in mind as well that once your information is on the dark web it stays there. Have you changed your email password since learning of any of the major breaches??

What can you do?

Use a password manager. An application designed to generate secure passwords for your accounts and save them.

You can access the app with one password and it will keep track of all the other passwords for you.

Use an MFA/2FA. Multi-factor authentication or two factor authentication is a means of verifying account ownership.

After entering your username and password if using MFA you will be required to provide a numerical code typically sent to you cellphone via text.

Use an authenticator application. Another from of MFA, an authenticator app generates a code that must be entered immediately after logging in. The application is on your device so it protects you from sim swapping.

What is sim swapping… a whole other type of nightmare.

Do a search to find out how many accounts your email is being used for, and also search for any of your emails that have been exposed in data breaches in the last ten years. Delete unused accounts. Change passwords for accounts that have been exposed.

What does it all mean?

It’s the information age and We all have to use the internet. Our digital footprints grow larger and larger with every new account we create. Our information will forever be at risk of being used maliciously.

We can not control that. What we can do is be prepared. Using simple and redundant digital security techniques to make sure that anyone who steals our login information still can’t get into our accounts.

More next Tuesday.

Stay informed,

The Help Desk

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If you missed last weeks newsletter check it out. We talked about the ways A.I is being used to improve the quality of life for the senior community.