www.cpanb-apcnb.ca Crime Prevention Association of NB Inc 63 USING PASSWORDS • Don't repeat numbers (5555) and letters (bbbb), include simple sequences (abcdefg or 56789) or use letters that appear in a row on your keyboard (qwerty). • Make sure that you change your smartphone's original default password. • Change your passwords after implementing a fix or following being compromised. • Use different passwords for different online accounts, especially those dealing with sensitive or financial information (banking online). How a cyber criminal gets your passwords You can bet a cyber criminal will do just about anything to get your information. First they'll try to guess your password by keying in things like your name, address or pet's name manually. They can use a brute-force attack with a computer program that uses every possible combination of characters until the password is found. Here's how they do it: • By monitoring your computer with malicious software that looks in places where passwords are stored, watching which sites you visit and following your keystrokes with a key logger. • By phishing, which means tricking people into giving up their passwords and information. • If they gain access to your email, they can use the "password recovery" feature on most other sites to gain access to almost all of your other accounts, so take special care to protect your email well. This includes always using a secure connection to your webmail and turning on 2-step verification if it is available. They can get into your system if you: • Go to an infected website. • Open an infected attachment. • Use an infected USB drive. Keep in mind you don't have to have malicious software on your computer for your passwords to be compromised. If you log into a site without a secure connection (not an HTTPS site) through a public Wi-Fi network, your information may be wide open to anyone and everyone. It's impossible to know how many cyber criminals or threats are out there. But when you've done everything you can to protect yourself, you can feel a lot more confident about going online and enjoying all of the great things the Internet has to offer. www.getcybersafe.gc.ca continued
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