With more and more people turning to the Internet to backup data, the question becomes, “Is my data really safe?”
Whether you are subscribing to a data backup service like Carbonite, taking advantage of the iCloud, using Photobucket or just active on Social Networks the degree of password security that you implement can mean the difference between keeping your assets and a catastrophic loss.
Recently Wired Magazine’s Mat Honan suffered just such a catastrophe. According to Mat, “In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.” You can read the whole article here.
Pretty horrific stuff but it can be avoided.
There are strategies that you can implement to protect yourself.
To avoid the fate of Mr. Honan you should:
1. Backup everything — in the cloud and on the ground.
2. Use a bunch (maybe hundreds?) of different passwords.
3. Don’t link all of your accounts together.
4. Use two-factor authentication on Google and Facebook.
5. Don’t use ‘Find My Mac’ on Apple computers.
To learn more about these steps, the steps above are covered in greater detail in an article on the CNN site here.
It is interesting to note that as a result of Mr. Honan’s experience both Amazon and Apple have implemented changes. Amazon has closed a security hole
and Apple has suspended over-the-phone password resets.