Avoid Fraud: Protect Your Passwords To Protect Your Identity

Almost every other month a major bank or department store announces that their user database has been hacked. Hackers use stolen passwords and other data to try to illegally access victims’ credit and banking information. Here are a few tips on how to protect yourself:

1. Use Different Passwords For Different Websites

People tend to use the same password for many accounts in order to avoid choosing and remembering new passwords. This practice is very risky. If someone gains access to your password, they can potentially log into any of your accounts to steal information and jeopardize your security.  Everyone should use a different password for different websites.

2. Choose A Strong Password

Picking a weak password is “like closing your front door but not locking it,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. Be sure to use numbers and symbols in all of your passwords.

3. Keep Your Passwords Secure With An App

Some experts recommend using a password manager app. Two recommended password manager apps are Keepass and Lastpass. KeePass is a free service that promises to provide a safe place to store all of your passwords. KeePass can also create strong passwords for you. The KeePass home page puts it this way:

“KeePass helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk.  So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known.”

We hope you are finding our consumer alerts useful. And, as always, if you know someone who is struggling with overdue debts, please have them call us for a bankruptcy consultation at 212-315-3755.