As news of hacked celebrity iCloud accounts surfaces today many are wondering if storing their private information in ‘the cloud’ is safe.
The answer is yes…and no.
In the case of the latest hacking it doesn’t appear that Apple’s security measures have been breached, unlike what happened to Sony and Adobe in the past which resulted in leaked customer information which potentially included financial records.
Celebrity iCloud accounts were targeted but it may have simply been a case of poor password protection either on the iCloud account or even on the associated email account.
So how do you avoid having your iCloud or other online accounts hacked?
Today I caught up with Tim Falinski from Trend Micro Australia to chat about the iCloud ‘hacking’ and get some tips of what users of any online service should be thinking about when it comes to securing their personal information (including photos). Listen below.
Trend Micro Australia has also provided the following tips for online security.
– If any online service is offering you options that increase your security, enable them. Even if you feel that turning on two-factor authentication may be slightly more inconvenient for you when logging in
– Do not reuse passwords. It is never a good idea to use the same password across multiple web sites, so try to have a unique one for every site you use
– Use a Password Manager which offers you the convenience of only having to remember a single password with the security of unique passwords for every service
– As for those security or password reset questions, consider whether the answers are really secure. Secure means that you are the only person who can answer the question. If the possibility exists to create
your own questions, use it. If you are obliged to answer more standard questions such as “First school” or “First pet” remember the answer doesn’t have to be the truth, it only has to be something you can remember.
– Deleted may not always mean deleted, as some of these victims are discovering. Familiarise yourself with the online services you use, find out if backups or shadow copies are taken and how they can be
managed.
Earlier this week I spoke with Jason and Jess on Gold 92.5 on the Gold Coast on this topic. Listen below.
