Cloud Security: Don't Overlook Protecting Your Personal Devices

Did you know that the most commonly used password online is “password”?  If you’d like to take a few minutes to change your current password to something a bit more complicated we’ll wait. 

Good.  The second most common password online is "123456". Yes, we’ll wait again.

All kidding aside, and we really hope that none of you had to change your passwords just now, there was a great blog written by Wired’s Mat Honan that will scare you into changing the way you think of setting up online accounts and the passwords that you use. If you even had an inkling of a thought to move to the hills of Montana and swear off all technology, this blog might be the catalyst to start packing.

In the blog, Honan outlines how his entire life was hacked, how much worse it could have been had the hacker wanted to really do financial damage, and how anyone currently reading this blog could not only be a victim, but could also very easily pull off the same hacking feat by doing a basic internet search and having the nerve to pose as someone else when calling Apple or Amazon customer support.

It’s a scary thought that access to our phones, tablets, personal computers, and by extension our financial data, personal photos, social media accounts and e-mail can be accessed with so little effort.

So how did one of the leading technology bloggers get compromised so easily? He didn’t take the extra steps to protect himself.  And most likely, very few of you have either.

How Safe is your Company Data?

Cloud security is only as good as your cloud provider.  While a top of the line cloud hosting provider will offer security features like 24/7 live systems management, online security breach alarms, and double authentication passwords, its not industry standard, and only protects from hackers trying to directly break into your servers.  But because of the nature of cloud computing, and the fact that people use personal mobile devices and home computers to work remotely, those become a gateway for hackers to crack your system.  Unless of course you are doing the necessary things to protect yourself from potential threats.

What You Should Do to Protect Your Personal Devices

1)     Change up your e-mail — Most people have multiple e-mail accounts.  And most people use the same prefix for all of their e-mail accounts.  The prefix being the identifying name before the @gmail or @me part of the e-mail address.  Once a hacker knows the prefix for one of your e-mail accounts, odds are that they know all of them, putting them one step closer to accessing vital data.

2)     Use 2 Step Authentication — Not all services provide this but it is a simple way to prevent hackers from getting into your e-mail.  It’s pretty straight forward too.  In addition to a regular password, in order to log into your account you need a second code that is sent to you via text message. This video from Google explains the process in more detail.

3)     Don’t use the same password for everything — We’re all guilty of it.  With all of the different online accounts that we all have, it can be hard to remember multiple passwords.  So we get lazy.  And we don’t change our passwords.  Ever.  If we want to truly protect ourselves, people need to not only have multiple passwords, but those passwords should be changed on a regular basis.

While these methods aren’t 100% foolproof, hackers generally target the most vulnerable.  Making their lives a little more difficult can go a long way towards convincing a hacker to move on to the next target rather than expending the energy needed to exploit you and your company.


What extra measures do you take to ensure your employees are protecting their personal devices properly?