Hacking of institutions

With all these reports about hacking and Scams, what do I need to know?

The internet is an amazing resource. I have unlimited availability to unlimited subjects, all through a convenient slim box that sits on my knee.  

I once heard someone say that they could show their Grandma a small box they keep in their pocket that can give you all the information you might ever need instantly including traffic reports, the latest news, watching TV or films and is a camera taking moving colour pictures and even allows you to make or receive phone calls and small messages she wouldn’t believe you. If I then told her that the thing it is most used for is taking pictures of my cat and letting my mates see them she’d have me sectioned!

Remember, there are dark and dodgy places on the internet just like anywhere else in the world. The problem is that the criminals on the internet exploit the innocence and naivety of users. These crooks are exceptionally clever and can make there scams very believable

The first and most reported are when Banks, Businesses or Academic institutions are hacked.

We have no control over their systems holding our information we have to trust them with our information.  These are like the recent news items about TalkTalk for an example and when the information is stolen it can be sold to a wide variety of scammers and it is usually the case that your existing password is tried for any other internet service. 

I have a lot of my customers who have only one or two passwords that they use for most of their internet security. I know it is a real pain but I strongly recommend that every service that needs a password will have unique one and please don’t ever disclose them to anyone. No reputable Internet based supplier will never ask you for your password.

I know it isn’t a great idea to write them down in a book but I also understand it becomes very difficult to remember them so use a book but please keep it away from your computer.

I have been talking to my clients about the possibilities open to them when generating something suitable.My advice is to consider the following tips

• Make your password at least digits long
• Make sure that you have upper and lower case letters
• Make sure that you have numbers
• Use special characters.

Most systems asking for a password will prefer this but some won’t accept them, if they don’t the web page will make it very 

So for example using my name I could use R1chard. It is 8 digits long, has upper and lower case letters, a number and a special character. I have started with a capital letter, replaced the letter I for a number 1 and added a full stop at the end. However it is usually recommended not to use your own name and don’t ever name your pet after your password.

I’ll put out another blog out soon about Hacking, Phishing and Scams in the next couple of days.