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Identity Theft Scare


hansolo77

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I got home from work today and started going through my emails like any other day.  There was an unexpected one from Microsoft saying something like "You're earning points now gabriella!"  Rather than click on any of the links wanting me to check on my Microsoft Points balance (I learned that trick a long time ago), I decided to log in to my Microsoft account by going to the website directly.  When I logged into the site, it actually showed my name as "pretty lizbeth", without proper capitalization, just like in the email.  I immediately went into the security settings and saw a few invalid login attempts from several different countries, and one SUCCESSFUL attempt from India.  Surprisingly, they didn't do anything in my account that I can see.  Only changed the name of my account profile and signed up for Points with a different name.  At first, I thought about just going through and resetting my password.  Then I realized the account name I used to log into that site is the same as my legit email address.  I'm one of the guilty people who use the same password for everything, even though we all know you shouldn't.  I always thought my password was long and random enough to never actually get hacked.  It's 12 characters long, letters, numbers, and an exclamation mark, all random without any words.  But since the Microsoft account was breached, it's got me on high alert about all my other accounts I use the same username/password combination with.  This site included.

So I'm asking the community...  Do you have any recommendations for a random password vault program?  I know they exist but haven't felt the urgency to investigate reviews on them.  Now I'm concerned.  I'd like something that can generate like 16 or more character passwords that are completely random.  I'd also like it to store these passwords (and usernames) in a "vault" that is encrypted with a 2-factor authentication lock.  Something that can take a password and a Pin # from the Authy App on my iPhone would be great.  Does such a thing exist?  I'm not looking for an app on my phone.  I do most of my forums/etc work on a computer.  I'd just like to use the phone for extra security.  Another feature that might be handy would be some kind of alarm to alert me to change my passwords on a regular basis.

I've already changed my most used accounts to something else.  But once again, I'm using the same password for them.  I need something that can help me keep track of 20-30 random passwords, instead of 1 random password used on 30 sites.  Anybody got any recommendations?

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I use LastPass, they have it at work and I got used to it. Absolutely swear by it. It's incredibly convenient having something keep track of my stuff, and it does a great job keeping my work and personal passwords separate.

I also use two step authentication (need the code from Google Authenticator every 30 days or in each new device), no one's going to be getting in there anytime soon. My passwords are completely random gibberish generated randomly using their software. Plugs in real nice with all the major browsers.

It also works on your Android phone if you're concerned about such things. :)

It's also free for personal use. Give it a go, but stick with it for a couple weeks... The change takes a bit to get used to. You'll never go back to having one password for every site again.

I know if for some reason one of my accounts gets hacked, the rest are completely safe. That's worth it just for that peace of mind.

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