britta//unfiltered

I love Zappos. I recently bought shoes for work from Zappos and when they fell apart the first day I wore them, Zappos accepted my return – free shipping, 100% refund – no questions asked. I’m a faithful customer, so I  was SO disappointed to get the email announcing that Zappos recently fell victim to a security breach. This breach in their database system means that 24 million customers’ personal information, including name, address, phone number, email and a “cryptographically scrambled” versions of passwords. Any other accounts online where the users have used the same login and password information are now more at risk.

Being naturally paranoid, I decided to edit all my passwords and step up how “safe” my passwords are. Identity and credit card theft is no joke, and can take a lot of time and energy to repair your credit history and privacy. Here’s what I did to improve the security of my online account passwords:

1) Make a list of all your accounts. Wrack your brains for sites that you use daily (Mint, gmail), weekly/monthly (bank accounts, loan provider websites, online bill-pay), and other websites where you may have stored important personal information but don’t access so often (PayPal, Netflix, iTunes). In the coming weeks, make sure to note other login information you may have forgotten about so you can update those passwords, too.

2) Create secure passwords for each of your accounts. PC World describes how to create secure passwords. Is it annoying to have separate, hard-to-remember passwords for each account? Yes. Can hackers figure out your password, “mydadsname87”? Yes. So just change them. Using a password manager (#3) will make this a lot less painful. And good passwords are most certainly less painful than getting your payment information stolen. So do it! PC Mag offers more tips on creating strong passwords, including a link to this password generator that can help you get ideas for secure passwords.

3) Download and USE a secure password manager. This 2010 article from PC World reviews four of the most popular password managers. I use LastPass and so far, I like it. The two biggest tips I have:
1) DON’T forget the password to your password manager. Seems obvious, but it’s really the only password you need to know since all your other passwords will be stored here. Make it something secure but MEMORABLE. 
2) I would suggest changing all your passwords first, then setting up your password manager. Use the password manager’s features to store your login information AT the login screen for each website. Trying to use the manager *as* you change the passwords can cause the password manager to associates your information with the info-changing web address instead of the log-in address.

4) Check if your info has already been compromised online. PwnedList.com lets you type in your email address or username, and using data available online and anonymously provided, tells you if your information has been compromised. You can also sign up for alerts should your login info show up later on.

5) Use a tool to track fraudulent activity on your financial accounts. I recently signed up for BillGuard, which scans your accounts and alerts you of potentially fraudulent activity. (Read more about the service from this article on Tech Crunch.) For example, my parking costs at the airport were consistent week after week when I was traveling four days a week. When I had to be gone for almost two weeks, BillGuard noticed I paid more than usual for parking and flagged the transaction. I then had the option to mark the transaction “okay”. If you use a tool like Mint (I love Mint!) to track your personal finances, you should also be able to monitor your transactions pretty well yourself by reviewing each line item and categorizing the expenses.

6) Learn how to request your free credit report. As this Federal Trade Commission website describes, www.AnnualCreditReport.com is the only authorized source for free credit reports online. For free, for real, no scammy sign-up required. There are 3 different credit reports from three different credit reporting companies, and you can obtain one copy of each per year. You can either get all three at once, or I’ve heard the tip to get one every four months to monitor your credit more frequently. I also use a credit score “tracking” service similar to Credit Karma (my service is offered free through my credit union). These services frequently only track one of the three credit bureaus, but can help give you insight into how your score is calculated and potential ways to improve it.

Whew! So that’s it – everything I have set up for myself out of paranoia over credit card and identity theft. Hopefully my dorky tips can help relieve some of your anxiety over online security! Any other tips?