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If you need any convincing of the reason why you need to have different passwords for all your online accounts, there is a website that allows you to check if your email address (or username) has been found on any list of stolen credentials.
I just did a check of my own email addresses, and found that my credentials have been stolen from the following well-known sites:
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7/2/2020 0 Comments Finding out what passwords are stored by your iPhone, iPad or Mac - and seeing which ones are re-used or weak Did you know that your Apple device may be storing details of your passwords, for a variety of online sites and services?
This is so handy if you want your device to 'auto-fill' details so that you don't have to remember all those passwords. I do make use of this feature on all my devices. But you need to consider whether these passwords could be accessible to others who have access to your device. If you have a weak passcode/password protecting your device, this could also put your online security at risk. Let's take a look at where you can find out
7/9/2019 0 Comments New iPhone announcement this week - and a warning if you are thinking of switching to a new device
This coming week will see announcement from Apple of the latest (and I'm sure greatest) iPhone range, as well as the launch of the new iOS 13, macOS Catalina and other news.
In the lead-up to these announcements on September 10th (or early morning September 11th Australian time), it would be an excellent time to bring all those Apple devices up to date - so that you have the most recent iOS 12 and macOS version. This then allows you 'hold fire' for a little while on installing the latest operating systems. We always suggest that it is a good idea to wait for a while so that others can find any teething problems.  Many Mac users think that, by having a password protecting their access to their Mac, they are making their Mac's contents inaccessible to those who should not have access - for example, if the Mac is stolen.
The truth is that, for the majority of Macs, the password will not prevent such access. Your Mac is still vulnerable to unauthorised access if it falls into evil hands. 29/10/2018 0 Comments Your iPad and iPhone can now auto-fill those SMS verification codes - here's how At iTandCoffee, our strong recommendation to all clients and subscribers is to, wherever possible, set up an extra layer of protection for any online accounts. This extra layer of protection is called two-step-verification or two-factor-authentication.
While this adds a level of comfort when it comes to security of your accounts, it can be annoying to have go and get the code that is sent to you as an SMS, and then enter it as part of the account login process.
 In my daily check of my Apple News app, where I have set up a 'topic' that provides me with daily 'computing and information technology news', I saw a concerning article about the release of over 700 million email addresses online. For some of these email addresses, passwords were also available - hacked from who knows where! Here is the article for anyone wanting to read about this: Have you been 'pwned' As mentioned in the above article, it is possible to visit a website that tells you if your email address is available on any known list of 'hacked' email addresses - including this new massive list. The website is haveibeenpwned.com. Just enter your email address to see if it is on any list. I was surprised to find my own iTandCoffee email address was on this new list! It was not on any list last time I checked, so this leaves me wondering which of the many online services I use has been 'hacked'. So as a precaution, I have changed my password for the impacted email account, and for other key accounts that use the email address. Now I need to see where else I have used this email address, and decide if password resets are needed! Ow. At least I have a different password for every online account, which minimises any 'damage' if anyone does have more than the email address. And I have put all these different passwords into my 'password safe' on my iPhone. This means that I always have easy - and secure - access to my passwords whenever I need them, either from my iPhone or iPad. (If you are an iTandCoffee Club member, you can watch the members-only video about how to set up a password safe on your iPhone/iPad. Here is the link to this video» If you are not yet a member, find out more about The iTandCoffee Club here ») How to change your online passwords If you need to change your password for your various online accounts, here are links to the relevant pages on some of the important ones:
Need further advice or help?
If you need advice on how to change any other online passwords, just leave a comment below. Or if you would like assistance with making changes to your passwords, book a time with iTandCoffee. Book online here or call 03 9886 0814 or 1300 885 420.  So many people I speak to tell me that they use the same password for more than one of their online accounts - their Mail, their iCloud/Apple ID, their PayPay, their eBay. Or they use only a couple, or minor variations of the same password. They tell me that this is the only way they can remember passwords. In many cases, this password is also very simple and easy to guess. My advice is always to reconsider this approach, and to tighten up their security - advice that I know is rarely heeded. It is all just too hard. An article that I saw last week re-iterated the serious danger of using one password across all your online accounts. It is worth reading, then considering whether it is time to get to work on updating those passwords. Here is the article: We are going to talk about managing passwords at our next Free FridayDue to popular demand, we are going to re-run on a workshop that we have run previously on the topic of passwords. At our next Free Friday for iTandCoffee Club members* on August 25th at 12pm, the topic will be 'Let's talk about managing all those %$&#@* passwords'We will talk about how to keep your online world safe, the importance of good, strong passwords, and (most importantly) how you can keep track of all those passwords - in a way that is safe and gives you access to them whenever you need them. We will hopefully also have time for general questions at the end. * Free attendance at iTandCoffee Club sessions like Free Friday depends on the level of membership. See our membership options here. Non-members can attend at a cost of $35.
11/7/2017 0 Comments What to do when your Apple password is rejected over and over - even though you know it's correct! This has been a common problem encountered by so many iTandCoffee clients. In fact, we have already had seen two clients this week who have had the problem (and it's only Tuesday!). Apple just won't accept my password!The issue arises when 'two-factor authentication' has been enabled on an iOS 10 (or MacOS), but where other devices that use the same Apple ID are running an older version of iOS or OS-X. The older versions of iOS and OS-X don't 'understand' the newer security steps that two-factor authentication bring. As soon as two-factor authentication is enabled on one of their devices, our clients have found that their password keeps getting rejected on other devices - even though they know that the password is correct. They get a message popping up on their 'up-to-date' iOS 10 device (or on their 'up-to-date' Mac) saying that someone is trying to access their account, with an 'Allow' (or 'Don't Allow') option. When they choose 'Allow' to get the 6-digit two-factor authentication code, they find themselves stuck - because the device that rejected their password does not offer a place to enter this 6-digit code. Instead, it just tells them that their password is incorrect. Fear not! There is a solutionFortunately, there is a relatively easy fix for this problem. We covered this issue in our February 2017 Handy Hint newsletter. (Subscribe to our great Newsletter here so that you get to see FREE tips like this ») This tip has since been moved to our Handy Hint Library, which is for iTandCoffee Club members. Here it is - if you are a Club member, just select the link to view the solution. Not yet a member of The iTandCoffee Club?Contact iTandCoffee on 1300 885 420 if you need help to solve this problem. If you are 'not so local' and are not yet a member, why not join The iTandCoffee Club to gain access to our huge library of great tips like this. Related Handy Hints and ArticlesHandy Hints (for iTandCoffee Club members only)
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 Every week, there are new reports of major security breaches. Recently, there were reports that cloud storage company Dropbox was a victim of a major hack in which 68 million account email addresses and passwords were potentially compromised.
Here is an article about this breach from Macworld. If you have a Dropbox account and have received the notification to change your password, I would strongly recommend that you act on this as soon as possible. If you have not yet set up something called 'two-step verification' on your Dropbox account, now is the time to do this as well. What is two step verification? |
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