How to Protect Your Online Accounts from Being Breached

How to Protect Your Online Accounts from Being Breached

Stolen login information is a very hot item on the dark web, and the price is slightly different for every kind of account. As an example, hacked social media accounts will sell for between $30 and $80 each.

As a result of growth in cloud computing use, there are also higher amounts of data breaches from compromised cloud usernames and passwords. According to IBM’s latest Cost of a Data Breach Report, compromised login credentials are now the number one cause of data breaches globally.

There are different costs to losing control of either your personal or workplace cloud account. It can lead to compliance violations, identity theft, ransomware infiltration, network attacks, and more. All these can cause significant financial and reputation damage. To make matters worse, weak, and insecure password practices make it easier for criminals to access your information.

According to a survey conducted by Finances Online, 34% admitted to sharing passwords with colleagues, 44% reuse passwords across work and personal accounts, and 49% store passwords in unprotected plain text documents.

Cloud accounts are now more at risk of breaches, and here are a couple of tips you could use to reduce the risk.

Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA is the best method to protect your cloud account. This is not a fail-proof method, but nearly 99.9% of fraudulent sign-in attempts are prevented, according to a study by Microsoft.

When you submit a second step to log in, it is usually to complete a one-time authentication code that is sent to your mobile phone. Most of the time, you will be the only person who has access to your phone that receives the code. This prevents hackers from moving past this step.

The slight inconvenience of using that additional step when you log into your accounts is more than worth it for the security improvement.

Using a Password Manager for Better Security

Criminals can easily snag passwords when they are hidden in insecure locations, such as in an unprotected Word document or an Excel document or the contact application on mobile devices.

Password managers allow you to store all your passwords in one location and protect them, so you only must remember one master password to access all of them.

Password managers are also useful for storing all your passwords in several types of browsers, enabling you to access them on all your devices conveniently.

Review/Adjust Privacy & Security Settings

Have you tried reviewing the security settings in your cloud tools recently? One of the more common culprits of cloud computing account breaches is mismanagement of the security settings. This situation happens when security configurations are set up properly at the beginning stages.

SaaS (Software as a Service) security settings should not be left at their defaults since these may not be tweaked to your security environment. Review and adjust the security settings of your cloud app to ensure that your account is constantly safe.

Use Leaked Passwords Alerts

You could provide perfect password security for your device, yet still, have the passwords compromised. This can be caused by a retailer or service that provides a master database of usernames and passwords on its website that has been exploited.

Whenever this happens, the passwords you store in your internet browser can be leaked onto the Dark Web, and you might not even realize this.

For this reason, browsers are now equipped with a leaked password alert capability. Once you save your passwords on the browser that you use, it will notify you if any leaked passwords are detected.

Do not Enter Passwords on Public Wi-Fi

When you are on public Wi-Fi, remember there is an increased danger of your device being hacked. Cybercriminals are lurking around monitoring public hot spots such as airports, restaurants, and coffee shops for valuable information, such as login details.

Refrain from entering sensitive passwords, credit card numbers or other confidential information while on any type of public Wi-Fi. use your phone’s wireless carrier connection or use a virtual private network (VPN) app, which encrypts the connection.

Use Good Device Security

If a hacker can access your devices through malware, they can easily prove themselves as the owner of your accounts. Think about how many apps you have on your devices and how vulnerable some of them can be to cyberattacks.

To eliminate an online breach that results from one of your devices, make sure you have robust protection for your mobile devices. Best practices consist of:

• Antivirus / anti-malware for your mobile device
• Updated software and OS
• Phishing protection (email filtering and DNS filtering)
• Looking for Password & Cloud Account Security Solutions?

Never leave your online accounts at risk. We can help review your current cloud security and provide improvement recommendations. Contact us for a no-obligation chat to begin the assessment.