LastPass Password Manager suffers a Breach.
I always hear gripes about passwords, their complexity and the need to change. This is not a subject to be taken lightly. A password is all that stands between your personal/financial info and bad guys trying to steal your info or monies.
Everyone needs some system to record these keys and protect this information. I personally use a contact located in an Outlook PST file that is password protected. You could also use an Excel spreadsheet to record your passwords and then password protect it. However, this is another password you need to remember. Also, there are utilities available for purchase that will break Excel password protection.
Some people use the password managers built into browsers. These too are vulnerable and if anyone knows your login password, they can expose your saved passwords in a browser. please see my prior post from 2019 about this, Browser Password Security
So what is one to do? Many have paid for online password managers such as LastPass. LastPass is an online password manager with a personal Premium version available for $3/month billed annually.
There have been many online credit card, bank, credit union as well as other breaches of user information. Why would an online password manager be any different? It's not, LastPass has been breached exposing tens of millions of customer credentials and keys.
In other words, the hackers hit the lottery. From an article on the NY Times;
When you use a password manager like LastPass or 1Password, it stores a list containing all of the user names and passwords for the sites and apps you use, including banking, health care, email and social networking accounts. It keeps track of that list, called the vault, in its online cloud so you have easy access to your passwords from any device. LastPass said hackers had stolen copies of the list of user names and passwords of every customer from the company’s servers.
If you are a LastPass customer, please read the article in the link below to determine what steps you need to take to safeguard your valuable information.
Keeping your Home WIFI/internet connection secure.
If the above doesn't shake you, there is more good news.
You need to keep your home internet connection secured. There are courses available online that teaches how to expose and connect to WIFI networks. These are the ones that can be seen via available networks. Has anyone watched the TV series, Mr. Robot? In the series, the main character/hacker uses Kali Linux to break into networks and computers to fight big (overreaching industry).
Kali Linux is a hacker's dream OS and is loaded with tools for breaching systems.
Anytime you are in public and connect to a Mall's WIFI or any guest WIFI, be aware that all your info is being transmitted without encryption including user name and password. So don't access bank or credit card info while using these networks. I get dragged to Perimeter mall by Boss Lady and I am usually stuck outside the coffee bar at Nordstrom's waiting. I have witnessed many times the same 2 characters armed with a notebook and an external WIFI adapter which is needed by Kali to intercept internet traffic. The internal WIFI adapters built into computers aren't any good for hacking.
With that warning said, back to your home internet, please see the info in the following link;
How To Tell If Someone Is Using Your WiFi, And How Remove Them (msn.com)
FYI, Next Tuesday is Microsoft Patch Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment