By Naomi Dolin-Aubertin
Or did they? Security experts are on the fence. For more in-depth articles examining how great of a security breach this is, visit here and here.
That being said, here are five things you can do to help bolster your online security.
1. Change your passwords
Yes, you may feel like you just changed all your passwords after the Heartbleed breach, the ebay breach, the Target breach.... Online security is very much a matter of changing your passwords regularly.
2. Use different passwords on each site
No one like remembering passwords, and so, many people use the same password or couple of passwords on every site. However, this leaves you much more vulnerable to attack since if a hacker gets into one site's system, they now have access to your entire digital life
3. Complicate your passwords
Don't use personal information like pets' names, kids' names, or birthdays in your passwords, as this information can be surprisingly easy to find and therefore easy for hackers to guess. Use mixtures of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and random words.
4. Use a password tracker
There are quite a number of password keepers out there that will automatically sign you in to sites from devices that you've trusted. Do a little research to find out which ones work best for your devices and budget.
5. Utilize two-factor authentication
More and more services (Google, Amazon, banks) are using two-factor authentication in order to login to their services from new devices. This involves sending a code to your phone (usually a text) which you have to plug in after you've entered your password. It's a different number every time and since it comes straight to you and expires after a certain period, is an excellent way to protect your account, even if it does add an extra step.
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