In August, Russians hacked into four American banks. According to Bloomberg, "At least one of the banks has linked the breach to Russian state-sponsored hackers. The FBI is investigating whether the attack could have been in retaliation for U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia, said the second person, who also asked not to be identified, citing the continuing investigation." Who cares whether it was retaliation or not? Prevent it.
Why in the hell, with all of our technology and expertise, the technology field can't come up with a solution to what Russians are considering nothing more than a "moral" crime only. If the government wants to protect this country and its citizens, it needs to strengthen our defenses and do it now.
In the meantime, advice from CBS Money Watch:
- Never leave a router on its default password.
- Never trust free, third-party free WiFi hotspots. Consider using a service to protect your devices and what you transmit. One free service to consider using when you're out and about is Hotspot Shield.
- If you're using a website to conduct a financial transaction, be sure you see a padlock icon and "https" before the URL. That indicates the site is secure.
- Be sure you keep your antivirus, browser and operating system updated. If you don't, you run the risk of both getting viruses and having a thief who uses a keylogger track your keystrokes, potentially capturing your passwords.
- Never click on links in emails, even if it's supposedly from your bank.
- Use two-step verification for email, social networking and any other account that offers it. That involves typing in a password that gets texted to you for one-time use.
- Use a password manager to help you create more secure passwords and organize them so you don't have to remember them.
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