According to the Federal Trade Commission, 8 million people every year are victims of cyber crime – but believe it or not, the biggest culprit behind these attacks isn’t a hacker trying to steal your identity. It’s you.
Say what?
Even if you’re hyper-vigilant about creating passwords with enough differentiation to outsmart the most brilliant hacker, your info may still be vulnerable, and your accounts at risk. Why?
Too many people write their passwords down.
I know, I know – how are you supposed to remember passwords for over a dozen accounts without writing them down? Might be a simple task for numbers people, but as for the rest of us? Not so much. Writing passwords down is the often the only way we can keep track of them.
But what happens if you toss the paper in the trash? How many of you keep your passwords stashed under your keyboard? Or in a desk drawer? (Don’t answer those, please!)
What if you wrote one down on the back of a business card, without realizing you handed off that same card at a networking event last week? Even if you don’t indicate what the password’s for, most of us use the same password over and over – and it won’t take long for someone to figure that out. There are so many instances where your list could get lost in the shuffle, ending up in someone else’s hands (and hard drive).
So what should you do if you, like me, need to write things down to remember them?
Try this trick: write down a password, but only half of it. Commit the rest of it to memory. That way, if you inadvertently leave your list of passwords somewhere where they can be accessed, the person who sees them won’t have the full version.
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Related:
Microchips in Our Passports and Credit Cards: Are They Safe?
3 Simple Ways Businesses Can Thwart Hackers
5 Tips for Preventing Moving ID Theft
The preceding was adapted from RISMedia.com – original content can be found here.
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