Online PC security

[El Cid 214]

I read an email that was in my junk folder, it stated one of my passwords. It was over a week old, but rather concerning.

It was asking for money, it could have been a password that I entered in to log into a web site. I have just run 'Windows Defender Security' but no issues. I have in the past downloaded free anti-virus software.

What safeguards do you take?

[Happ 25]

Change password to be unique for everything and set-up two-factor authentication where offered. Check out  https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to see if it identifies where your credentials were leaked.

 

People will use the email and password along with variations of it, to test access to other sites too. This will be scripted with little user interaction trying credentials they have on many sites, potentially thousands of queries a second. So if you have used the same password for various online sites, it’s advisable you change them.

 

It doesn’t matter how secure and protective you are of your credentials, you still have to trust in the various companies to hold your data 100% secure. That will never be a reality and there will always be people who can bypass the protectiosn put in place. The best you can do is keep your credentials unique.

[Albert smith 11]

Are Macs more secure than Windows .

[Jomie 30]

Supposedly, yes but with provisos.  They are not totally immune to malware.  Some Mac owners use security software, some don't. More information on The Safe Mac website.

 

As for the email/password question, Happ is right - a lot of it is down to the security of the websites that hold your details. I've recently had two spam emails from the same address and sender but to totally different email addresses. One of them mentions some website building software that I bought a long time ago. It may well have had both addresses so I am wondering if there has been a hack somewhere.  

 

Good security software is essential so as I don't like free programmes I am happy to pay for Kaspersky Antivirus.  Have used it for many years and it has been excellent.  Despite what adherents say about Windows Defender, I wouldn't trust it totally.

[El Cid 214]

19 minutes ago, Jomie said:

As for the email/password question,

 

I have not had any issues, since the password is not my sole password, it should not be a problem. My bank is a totally different way of logging in.

I do tend to use the same password for some sites, but the one stated in the email is an older one.