This holiday season might leave technology and entertainment supergiant Sony with nothing but a big lump of coal in its stocking. In a high-profile hack, hackers continue to leak Sony’s employees’ sensitive information like Social Security numbers, passports, and even personal emails. This is obviously an issue for the company, but so is its lack of IT security, as shown by their passwords being stored in a folder named “Passwords.”
When the server was hacked and its contents were made visible to the attackers, it’s understandable that they would make a break for the folder titled, “Passwords.” They probably thought Christmas came early with this convenient present, gift-wrapped and ready to be consumed by the ravenous masses. At the rate at which data is being leaked, it’s hard to guess what information will be exposed next.
GOP (Guardians of Peace), the group supposedly responsible for the hack, has announced that if Sony employees or associates don’t want their personal information leaked, they should email them directly requesting to not do so. Considering the extremely personal nature of this information, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some people throw in the towel.
Some folks, like actors Seth Rogen and James Franco, are taking advantage of the hacks by making jokes on Saturday Night Live and social media. This distracts others from the gravity of the situation. This hack is a big deal, and crazy amounts of confidential data could leak due to lackluster security practices. All of this could have been avoided by optimizing both network security and password-keeping best practices. Here are some of the best ways to keep your passwords and sensitive information safe from prying eyes:
Let a Password Management Solution Remember Your Passwords For You
All of these best practices can make your password difficult to remember and even more difficult to guess on the fly. Granted, it’s tough to remember even one complex password. Thankfully, The Connection, Inc’s preferred password management solution makes remembering even complex passwords easy as can be. A password manager is an application where all of your passwords are securely stored. When they are needed, the application plugs the necessary credentials into the website you’re visiting, giving you safe and easy access to your account.
If this sounds like too much of a hassle, another less-secure option is to write down all of your passwords in one place, like a notebook or a post-it note. However, as seen from Sony’s blunder, you absolutely can’t label the list as passwords. For more information about how to keep your data safe in a world full of criminals, give us a call at (732) 291-5938.
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