Our employees know I’m always looking for inspiration, so from time to time, they send me possible story ideas.  In the last few weeks, two different people have sent me links that involve online shopping security.  Both articles had some great tips, and I’d like to pass them along to you.  I’ll also the links to the original articles posted at www.beasleytech.net so you can read them for yourselves.

The first link was to a fascinating article from a blog called One Man’s Blog.  Its title is “How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords.”  According to the article, hackers have access to software programs that can quickly try thousands and thousands of possible user names and/or passwords in an attempt to discover yours.  If your password is a common word or a name, the likelihood of one of these programs discovering it is much higher.  In fact, the author included a chart that showed the length of time it would take one of the programs to find your password, based on the complexity of that password.  For example, if your password is six lowercase letters, it would take an average of 5.15 minutes for the program to find it.  If your password is eight characters and uses numbers and special characters like asterisks and dollar signs, it would take an average of 2.1 centuries.  Centuries.  What a difference an asterisk makes!

I can hear you asking, “How am I supposed to remember a whole string of complicated passwords?  I can barely remember ‘letmein’ and ‘lovemyhubby.’”  I’ve written before about using an algorithm to create passwords, and the idea bears repeating.  You can use any common word—“tigers,” for example—but you have a set pattern of making that common word more difficult.  Maybe your algorithm is that you change the letter e to the number 3; change the letter t to a plus sign; and add the last four digits of your parents’ phone number.  The word “tigers” becomes +ig3rs9685.  You could apply this algorithm to any word you choose.   “Butter” becomes Bu++3r9685.  A password that would take a hacker 5 minutes to find will now take centuries to discover.

Another idea from this article is that the sites you think don’t matter are the ones hackers target.  Your online banking site is secure—most hackers won’t try to get into it.  But the online forum you visit regularly?  It’s an easy target, and if you use the same password over and over, the hacker can now access your bank account.

The second article came from Webroot, an anti-virus software provider.  It simply provides basic, common sense tips to stay safe online.  For example, never click on a link to visit a website; type the address directly into your browser.  This helps you avoid look-alike sites set up by hackers.  Also, be sure to regularly check any accounts you use for online shopping for fraudulent charges.  The sooner you catch a problem, the easier it is to fix it.  Finally, beware of any e-mail that requires you to open an attachment in order to track a shipment or view an undeliverable package alert.  Legitimate tracking numbers will be included in the body of the e-mail; better yet, visit the vendor’s site and get tracking information there.

It isn’t my goal to scare you away from online shopping.  Most major retailers, banks, and other popular sites have great security.  But taking a few easy steps can save you a major headache down the road.  If you have any questions about any of these ideas, please call us at Beasley Technology, (918) 225-6900.