Full Notification

Many of us have received the dreaded letter from a retailer or financial services organization stating that some (often thousands or millions) of their customers' accounts have been breached. The letter may offer a free product or service to mitigate further issues if your account has been breached such as identity theft protection. If you have received one of these letters, this issue is personal. If you have not received one, there is a good chance that one of the companies that has your personal identifying or financial information will be affected by a security breach in the future. Here are a few simple ways to protect yourself from an account breach.

Use multi-factor authentication, when available. This option requires the user to not only have a password to access account information, but also an additional identifier, sometimes a code that is sent to a cellphone or a fingerprint to confirm that it is you accessing your account.

Make your passwords strong and long. Tested password strength using an online tool that determines the length of time it would take a computer to crack your password. One password strength site suggests that password “smile123” would take about one minute to crack, however, “sMyle123&” would take approximately 4 weeks to crack. Give it a try to see how well your passwords measure up. Tip: do not use your actual password, but one with similar upper/lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.

Utilize security questions that cannot be discovered online. With a little time, a hacker may be able to discover your place of birth by searching online. Choose tough questions and answers that only you know (and can remember).