Apparently one quarter of respondents in a survey have indicated that they scaled back their online shopping for fear of security issues. A further 21 percent of respondents refuse to use online banking for the same reasons. Those are not even the most worrying statistics. That same survey revealed that 65% of people use 5 or less passwords for all their electronic access, and 15% used one password for everything.
Folks, bad passwords are like locking your house using a key with a flat featureless shank, anyone with the time and inclination can get in. My passwords are all 12 characters or more long, and I change them regularly. Long passwords are not that hard to use, think of a song you like, and take the first or last letter from each word in one of the verses. Sing the verse in your head when you enter your password and you’ll have no problems. Most of all, NEVER use dictionary words, because brute force attacks will make that worthless in a jiffy. (don’t use your kids names, your pets name or anything else that someone researching you would be able to find out.)
Thus far, nearly all cases where people have lost money from online banking, is from Phishing attacks, or Viruses/Trojans/Worms, in other words, it is their own habits and PC that are the cause, not the banks. That’s why we wrote tips.littlehosting.com where we list a heap of free software that will help secure your PC and information on why you need to use it.
Read this for more on the survey results.
