Cybersecurity researchers at Cybernews reported a few days ago that they had discovered the largest collection of stolen passwords in history totaling almost ten billion passwords were posted on a Dark Web site used by cybercriminals.  Cybercriminals use websites on the Dark Web to buy and sell goods and services.  The passwords posted were not from a single data breach, but rather were an accumulation of compromised passwords stolen through data breaches going back years.  Obviously, having your password compromised is bad, but it is particularly dangerous if you use the same password for all of your accounts.  Identity thieves and scammers will use these compromised passwords to access sensitive accounts such as your online banking.

TIPS

Because it is not a matter of “if,” but “when” you will have your passwords compromised in a data breach, it is important that you use unique passwords for all of your accounts and use dual factor authentication for all of your important accounts so that even if your password is compromised, an identity thief who knows your password will still not be able to access your account.

Many people use password managers to generate strong passwords.  However, if you would like to use the helping hand you find at the end of your own arm and generate unique, complex passwords for each of your accounts that are easy to remember, here is a strategy that is very effective. You can start with a strong base password constructed from a phrase, such as IDon’tLikePasswords that has capital letters, small letters and a symbol, add a few symbols at the end so it may read IDon’tLikePasswords!!! and then adapt it with a few letters for each particular account you have so that you will have a secure and easy to remember password for each of your online accounts.   Thus, your Amazon password could be IDon’tLikePasswords!!!AMA.

Here is a link to a site where you can find out how strong your password is. https://password.kaspersky.com/

Also, if you want to find out what data breaches have compromised your personal information, you can use this site.  https://haveibeenpwned.com/

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