(Newswire.net — August 6, 2014) —
The brazen attack has left the online public scratching their heads as to how to secure their online identities and data.
This attack brings to light many questions about security practices practiced by thousands of websites around the world and could place many users at risk of having their personal and financial information compromised.
The data theft was initially discovered by the online security firm, Hold Security. “They targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites,” Alex Holden of Hold Security told the New York Times. “And most of these sites are still vulnerable.”
However security researchers from Kaspersky, Symantec and University College London have questions the announcement. “We’ve had very little concrete information released,” said David Emm, senior researcher with security firm Kaspersky.
This still doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take some preventative action to protect yourself.
There’s no way to know for sure if your information was stolen but it’s safe to assume that you could be affected and that you should take some preventative action to protect yourself.
Protect yourself from hacking by;
Changing your password for any website that hosts sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and health records.
Making long and seemingly random passwords.
Not using the obvious and easily guessed terms — birthdays, relatives’ names, hometowns, sports teams, etc.
Using words written backwards and substituting numbers and characters such as 3 for E.
Using a different password for every website. That’s just asking for trouble.
Checking out two-step authorization offered by Facebook and Google.
Exploring email security offered by RPost including encryption.
Sources:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26281956/record-breaking-data-breach-highlights-widespread-security-flaws
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/06/cybersecurity-expert-russian-hacking-scare-hold-security-passwords
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/russian-hackers-stole-1-2-billion-passwords-safe-article-1.1893695