CNN just announced this morning that many Twitter account passwords had been compromised. They are a little bit behind the story. But why does this matter to you and your social media?

First of all, “Don’t Panic” Halifax, Dartmouth, Truro or where ever you may be. Take a deep breath. Most of the Twitter accounts compromised were suspended spam accounts and celebrity accounts. Here’s a short piece of what Mashable.com wrote:

  • “Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous claimed this week to have accessed and published the details of about 55,000 Twitter accounts.”
  • “But Twitter said Tuesday those claims are largely bogus, and that the group mostly posted duplicate information or username and password information for suspended spam accounts.”

As you can see, it’s not the end of the world. This is stuff that we have to live with on a daily basis. Remember the “Someone is saying bad things about you” Twitter virus that was spreading around? I even wrote a blog post on what to do when “Your Twitter account gets hacked“.

Regardless of what is going on out there in the world, what should you be doing to make your social media accounts safe? Here are a few suggestions that you can do:

  • Change your passwords on a regular basis.
  • Create strong passwords.
  • Don’t sent your passwords in an Email.
  • Don’t click on hyperlinks in your Email asking you to verify your password and username.

Now I can hear you complaining that this is to hard to do and keep up with. If you do it smartly, it’s not that bad. Well how can I do this and not cause myself a lot of pain? Here’s some ideas for the above suggestions:

  • Have a password keeper system to store your passwords. One password gets you into all your passwords. When you change your password, you make the change here. You could even use a password manager like lastpass.com for example. I have not used it yet, but I hear good things about it.
  • Use the Microsoft Password checker to create strong passwords. You should use (1) a lower case letter, (2) an uppercase letter, (3) a number and (4) a character like the * symbol or the # sign.
  • Email is visible on servers. Your Email could be intercepted and viewed. If you ever get a password recovery via Email, get into your account and change the password immediately.
  • Those Emails with blue hyperlinks and threats that your account will be suspended if you don’t verify it now by entering your username and password; it’s a scam. Social media networks use web pages to reset your password; usually with the secret question you set up before hand. So think before you click.

So what’s our walk-a-way for today? Changing your passwords on a regular basis will help keep your social media safe and operational. Your accounts will be that much more protected. Now nothing is 100% bullet-proof. Stuff can happen. At least you will be doing your part to protect what you have. Be safe out there.

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