The Office Grapevine - Virtual Assistance in Chicago, Illinois

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

New Year, New Passwords - Look at Monster.com

I write a blog post for one of my clients all surrounding technology with tips, tricks, great free and open source stuff. I'm reprinting my post from this past Monday here because I believe it is important for as many people as possible to know what has happened over at Monster.com.

I wanted to share this important information that comes direct from Monster.com.

First of all, as a reminder, with the new year you definitely need to start changing all your passwords. It should be something unique to you with both letters and numbers. If you can remember to put in a capital letter or unique symbol all the better.

On January 23rd Monster released a letter to all subscribers about the full impact of the hack into their site. The information stolen from the Monster database were user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data.

Thankfully, resumes were not hijacked. To Monster's credit they do not collect sensitive information like social security numbers or financial data.

Monster has already initiated corrective measures including changing your password. If you have not logged in recently, you should go and change your password immediately.

It's human nature and I have to admit that I use a similar login/password combination for the many sites where I need to login. I am equally guilty of this as well, so I have followed my own advice (for a change!). I would encourage you to change all your passwords on other sites especially if you use the same password for any other sites.

Remember, passwords should be unique and changed every 6 months to ensure your personal information is completely secure.

You may have several different passwords but keep it consistent and rotate among 4-5 different passwords to keep it safe. And don't forget, use something that you will remember without having to write it down.

And to quote Hill Street Blues, and "Hey, hey! Let's be careful out there!"

Labels: Hill Street Blues, Internet security, Monster.com, password, Small Business