HRC Insurance Blog

How to Protect yourself from the largest computer hack to date!

In current news; a Russian hackers gang recently aquired 1.2 billion usernames and passwords. Let's put 1,200,000,000 into a more fathomable number. The population of Canada is around 33 million, USA is approximately 319 million, if we combine those numbers and say that every person in Canada and the USA has 3 online accounts, this comes to a total of 1,036,000,000 accounts. Still 200 million short. This hack has been more concerning every day as the number is quickly rising.

They have attained these passwords by purchasing small databases on the internet and the black market, and eventually started buying larger and larger databases. Once they have a large enough stockpile, they
send out a virus to sneak into the files. It runs rapid collecting personal information, breaking codes and easy passwords. After this step all the data is sent back to the hacker and most times there is no visual sign that the virus was even there.

We are not yet sure what this gang wants to do with the passwords, wether to collect money from online banking or just sell it off for a larger profit. But, listed below are some steps to help keep your online accounts safe and secure.

Some ways to stay protected!

• Change all passwords on your accounts. Changing a password from something short and complicated to long and simple is recommended. Computers hackers can crack short passwords much easier than long ones.
• Incorporate a password on your mobile devices. These devices save all personal passwords and if not password protected can be an easy link for hackers to access all of your information.
• Make sure to write down all passwords rather than saving them in an email. When accounts are created often an email is sent with the account info, therefore if your email gets hacked more than one account can be breached.

In this generation a large part of our planets systems are based around technology and finding new ways to hold information on servers or cloud based programs.  It is always a good idea to change passwords now and then. With a growing population becoming well versed in computer technology this just means we need to grow our knowledge about how to be safe on the web.

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