Some passwords are funny. Some are pretty weird. Some can be a math problem. Many can be laughably easy to hack (I give you "dadada, ""qwerty," "password" and"123qwe" to name a few.) — or very tricky. But one thing is for sure, they are never really 100% hack proof.
Earlier this month, news broke that a significant number of Twitter passwords had been compromised and were being offered to anyone willing to fork over 10 bitcoins, or roughly $6,700, as of this writing. More than 32 million users were included in the cache of information on the cyber creep auction block. Hacked information database Leaked Source said in a blog post that it received the data set from a user under an alias.
Your Information Is Out There
The first takeaway: Anyone can scavenge and rumor-chase to find purloined login credentials. The second: You are not safe, and identity-related crimes are the third certainty in life, right behind death and taxes. (You can monitor your credit for signs of identity theft by viewing two of your credit scores for free each month on Credit.com.)
Twitter has told multiple news outlets that its systems were not breached. Leaked Source said the passwords appeared to have been grabbed by malware.
How to Keep People Out of Your Stuff
While knowing that your information is out there is an important piece of the personal data security puzzle, keeping your accounts safe is even more crucial.
While there has been much innovation in the world of data security, nothing has proven foolproof yet. Biometric authentication using fingerprint and iris scans is promising, but their adoption is far from universal and not without some spoofing issues.
There are tokens and cards that can complement passwords, but those are fallible for the reason that they can be stolen or lost.
Multi-factor authentication is probably the best way to deal with security issues, but it does not necessarily strike the best workplace balance between security and convenience. The Pixar movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" provides a comical scene that demonstrates why it's not the most practical approach (the character has to provide a hand, foot, tongue, elbow and butt scan to gain access to the president's situation room).
Passwords Are Still the Best Option
As things stand now, a password coupled with a second factor of authentication known only to the user — like a visual prompt — is the best personal security solution.
Because we have many accounts and they should all have separate passwords, most consumers have a problem keeping all that information straight. There are apps for that, of course, and if you are OK with cloud-based solutions — bearing in mind that nothing is un-hackable — you might want to check out a service like 1Password, which allows you to store all your passwords, PINs, credit card numbers, and more. PasswordWallet 4 and Dashlane provide similar services. Bear in mind that they are not the only good games in town. So do your research and read reviews. Keep in mind, too, some password managers charge for their services.