Tips, Tricks and Articles about your Technology iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android, Office 365, Google services, iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, Apps, Social Media, Zoom, and more. |
Join the iTandCoffee Club to read members-only tips on this page
|
22/2/2021 0 Comments How your iPhone and iPad can show which of your passwords have been compromised Over time, there has been a multitude of data breaches - where lists of account credentials have been stolen from businesses like Dropbox, LinkedIn, Adobe, Canva, Houzz and so many more. This means that details of over 10 billion account have been stolen.
The haveibeenpwned.com website allows you to check to see what stolen lists you might appear on. But there is also another easy way to see which of your online accounts may have been compromised - and which passwords you might want to think about changing asap.
0 Comments
 Image by Rick Bella from Pixabay I have previously written about clients who lost the master password to their 'password safe' - which has meant that they are unable to access all the passwords that are in that safe, protected by that password.
This can be very distressing and create a lot of work to reset all the passwords that you no longer have access to. So imagine the stress - and incredible distress - for a programmer in Silicon Valley who has forgotten the password to his Bitcoin digital wallet - valued at US$245M. Even worse, he only has 2 attempts left (out of 10) before he is locked out of his wallet FOREVER, forfeiting that $245,000,000! Read about this poor man in the article below. 
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:
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.
|
What's on at iTandCoffee ?Join us for a short, fun 'topic of the day' classes known as PTT sessions (Personal Training for your Technology fitness!) - these are run on a regular basis. Or join any of our other classes shown below to learn so much about your technology.
If you have questions, why not join our The iTandCoffee Club to attend fun and informative 'user group' meetings. All classes are run as online classes (using Zoom) which means you can attend from anywhere. |
27 Sycamore St, Camberwell, Victoria Australia
Call 1300 885 420
to book an appointment or class, or to enquire about our services and products
|
SENIORS CARD WELCOME HERE:
Seniors Card holders qualify for a 10% discount on all classes booked and paid for online (excludes PTT sessions and classes already discounted during COVID-19 crisis). To activate the discount at the time of booking, select Redeem Coupon or Gift Certificate and enter 10OFFSEN before selecting Pay Now. |
© 2012-2021 iTandCoffee Pty Ltd. All rights reserved ACN: 606 340 434