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Check your passwords and internet security

Discussion in 'Technology' started by Bakershack, Oct 31, 2020.

  1. Oct 31, 2020 at 7:56 PM
    #1
    Bakershack

    Bakershack [OP] Critical of Noncritical Thinkers

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    I am generally the first line of tech support for much of my extended family. This afternoon I got a call from my cousin. His email email was hacked somehow and the hacker used it to compromise his Coinbase account (cryptocurrencies) and TDAmeritrade account. Coinbase alerted him to a change that he didn't make, and he was able to jump right on it. He doesn't think he lost anything but he doesn't know what other accounts the hacker may have been able to access.

    He has been ignoring my preaching for years but this experience woke him up. Here are some things I've been telling him, that he has ignored up 'til now:
    1. Lock your phone - he did not even have a passcode on his phone until tonight. Just about all modern phones have either fingerprint or face recognition so there is PRACTICALLY ZERO INCONVENIENCE. Just do it!
    2. Use unique passwords that cannot be guessed on all your accounts - he used the same password for just about every internet account he had. And if you knew anything about him, it was fairly easy to piece together. He now has LastPass and is in the process of generating long random character passwords for his accounts, but this will take awhile to cover all of his accounts. If someone gets you email and that common password, they practically OWN you.
    3. Use 2FA - 2 Factor Authentication (also known as MFA - Multifactor Authentication). If you have this, the email and password are much less useful if hacked.
    4. Don't depend on your ISP's supplied modem/router/firewall. Have your own firewall with much tighter policies based on your usage. I know this sounds intimidating to non-techies, but get someone to help if you have to. I don't know about all ISP's, but Mediacom and AT&T supplied firewalls are easily hacked if left with their default settings. You could adjust their firewall settings, but they have serious limitations. A quality router/firewall you own is almost certain to provide better protection.

    This is not a comprehensive list, just the things that could have protected my cousin better.
     
  2. Oct 31, 2020 at 8:06 PM
    #2
    hagrid

    hagrid The most diverse of Diversity Hires!

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    What's the largest tires I can run on a stock firewall?
     
  3. Oct 31, 2020 at 9:46 PM
    #3
    Bakershack

    Bakershack [OP] Critical of Noncritical Thinkers

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    :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
    :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
    :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

    I guess it depends on the bandwidth you are willing to pay for!
     
  4. Oct 31, 2020 at 10:03 PM
    #4
    jr1016

    jr1016 New Member

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    :rofl::rofl::rofl:Facebook much?
     
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  5. Oct 31, 2020 at 10:03 PM
    #5
    jwatt

    jwatt I heart men

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    It s not the size tire that matters. It s the footprint left behind.
     
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  6. Oct 31, 2020 at 10:18 PM
    #6
    jwatt

    jwatt I heart men

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    Another option is to run OS in an encrypted drive, and use a virtual private network for any online activity. First of all a vpn encrypts any data traveling to and fro, and the encrypted drive helps keep existing data safe.
     
    Rica25 likes this.
  7. Nov 1, 2020 at 6:08 AM
    #7
    Bakershack

    Bakershack [OP] Critical of Noncritical Thinkers

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    True, VPN's are a huge step forward, but you have to be careful what VPN you use. Many come from Chinese-owned firms and are used to spy on all their users. Many result in very poor connections, low speeds, or are a pain to use. And if I can't get someone to put a passcode on their friggin phone, what chance do I have of getting them to use a VPN?!?
     
    Retired...finally likes this.
  8. Nov 1, 2020 at 6:36 AM
    #8
    endagon

    endagon New Member

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    If you have an old computer collecting dust it might work with pfsense or opnsense to use as a free router/firewall, provided you have an extra ethernet card to put into it. They can do wifi if you add a card but that usually doesn't work well, range is limited and it doesn't like to bridge it into the LAN subnet. You could use your old WIFI router as an access point behind the opnpfsense firewall box though. Or get a standalone wifi AP

    To give google slightly more garbled information you could put your wifi AP behind a second firewall box connected to a vpn, maybe even have a pihole on that subnet although getting the pihole to use the vpn connection's DNS server is a little tricky. The pihole by default connects to separate dns servers such as google or opendns and if your public ip is different than your dns ip it makes a unique fingerprintable marker any website can see. One way that works is have the host machine connected to the VPN and run two virtual machines, one with pfsense and the other with pi-hole. Both have one virtual network to NAT and another to the bridged adapter to the second host machine's ethernet port that goes to the AP network. Redirect dns and all port 53 traffic in the pfsense VM to the pihole on its bridged adapter address and then have the pihole run unbound through the NAT which will go to the host's VPN dns server.

    If that machine can do it you can have a third VM with another pihole installation set to bridged adapter to the incoming internet connection and use it as an ad-blocker for your non-vpn subnet. At this point we're getting to 'the more you overthink the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain' territory though.
     
    Vr0ck and chugs like this.
  9. Nov 1, 2020 at 6:50 AM
    #9
    Bakershack

    Bakershack [OP] Critical of Noncritical Thinkers

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    How do you get your family members to do this? See below:

     
  10. Nov 1, 2020 at 7:23 AM
    #10
    Cpl_Punishment

    Cpl_Punishment Young men never die.

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    Boy, I don't understand a word you just said.
     
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  11. Nov 1, 2020 at 7:27 AM
    #11
    bleach

    bleach MEME Fiend

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    OK, just add "eh" at the end of each sentence. You'll get it then. ;)
     
  12. Nov 1, 2020 at 7:30 AM
    #12
    MoreBeer

    MoreBeer New Member

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    Lastpass is probably the biggest impact change that a "non-computer" person can make. As it learns your logins, it will start to pop up "hey, you're using this same password somewhere else" messages, and it also has the ability to tell you which websites you have stored credentials on have been hacked. You can go a step further and use Lastpass Family that lets you share credentials (like costco, hilton, united, whatever) among family members safely. There are other alternatives (bitwarden, 1password, etc), but lastpass has been a great solution for me and my family over the past years. The VPN + encrypted drive solutions are a great extra step if you are working in public places or traveling a lot, but password security is the most critical foundation.
     
    CowboyTaco and chugs like this.
  13. Nov 1, 2020 at 8:21 AM
    #13
    glowblue

    glowblue From time to time

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    I learned this lesson several years ago and I have an IT background. I was at home and was getting PayPal alerts on my phone that someone who hacked into my account was ”paying” $5 to some weird business. About every few seconds I was getting notifications in real time watching my PayPal account drain. I called PayPal and in about 5 minutes they had it stopped, reversed the charges and got me back to normal (hats off to them).

    The PayPal guy asked if I used the same password across sites and I said yes and he said that is the easiest way to hack someone. Once they get an email and password combo they try them all over the place at popular online banking and reatailers.

    From that day on I have unique passwords for every site I visit. I classify them based on security risk and for sites like banking or finance I have a very complex unique password system and for other sites a different system. It’s a pain but it does work.
     
    Bakershack[OP] likes this.
  14. Nov 1, 2020 at 8:28 AM
    #14
    Zero One Actual

    Zero One Actual Member among Members

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    Just use a pass phrase please. Please see attached photo for how weak your current set up is.

    Pass phrase example
    White Tundras Are Slow!

    If they want a number and special character just change whatever you want.
    Wh1te Tundras Are Slow!

    Then when it’s time to update or change it just modify the upper case letters and special characters but you will never forget it.

    white tundra5 Are Slow!

    And so on and so on.

    white Tundr@s are Slow!!

    4553217E-14D1-4E5E-9AD9-170612E66854.jpg
     
  15. Nov 1, 2020 at 9:47 AM
    #15
    JoshuaA

    JoshuaA Canuck Member

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    You can check to see if your email(s) and passwords have been compromised here:
    https://haveibeenpwned.com/

    Use passphrases with alphanumerics (shift above numbers) for passwords

    Use one email address and unique passwords for banking and paypal absolutely nowhere else! Create different emails for sites, temporary emails for coupons etc
     
  16. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:07 AM
    #16
    Bakershack

    Bakershack [OP] Critical of Noncritical Thinkers

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    Yeah, I learned in the mid-90's to hate Norton/Symantec. They lock users out all the time for no reason, and with no obvious way to fix the problem. It got so bad that when friends or family called me for help due to their internet being "broken" the first thing I would as is what AV they were using, shortly followed by my advice to uninstall it. And their antivirus is not even a strong contender among AV's.

    Currently, believe it or not, one of the best AV's available for Windows is the built in Defender.
     
  17. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:26 AM
    #17
    CowboyTaco

    CowboyTaco New Member

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    Very good info.

    Every forum has one.
     
  18. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:28 AM
    #18
    CowboyTaco

    CowboyTaco New Member

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    In all seriousness, I work in Info Sec. I'll be happy to attempt to answer and questions or assist in any way that I can with securing personal accounts.

    LastPass is great. Please setup MFA/2FA on it though, as they have had some breaches themselves. Having that second factor mitigates those breaches.

    Use a different password for each site you use too. I'm guilty of doing and not doing this at the same time.
     
  19. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:30 AM
    #19
    CowboyTaco

    CowboyTaco New Member

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  20. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:38 AM
    #20
    Cpl_Punishment

    Cpl_Punishment Young men never die.

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    Avast seems decent for a free AV but it's gotten bloated over the years.
     
  21. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:43 AM
    #21
    CowboyTaco

    CowboyTaco New Member

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    Keep Windows up to date and don't go to sketchy porn sites and you really shouldn't have a problem.
     
  22. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:45 AM
    #22
    endagon

    endagon New Member

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    in linux there's a handy program for making passwords if you don't like lastpass. Didn't they get hacked once? Try like so in terminal
    Code:
    ~$ apg -a 0 -m 16
    grenEtkewWiOcEav
    Rerkib<wrirlobok
    kofyornyelWupNiv
    dikTidmowWalvuj8
    necEshNicEbOtIbs
    cleaffumIgocgeys
    
    and you'll get a few suggested passwords 16 characters long. Change to any length you want. Swap some special characters and presto! Then you better write it down. Or instead of -a 0 use -a 1 for something even tougher but harder to remember.
    Code:
    ~$ apg -a 1 -m 16
    IWClN>"a"t]5/XKD
    ek"tKo:qUuUS5q+/
    fJluD^4C3dD\4A$i
    jdJgkDICrTQ}a|xw
    +X0u,z`>2-'Ph+Bf
    uHZ&`YZ2X@Nf4ax%
    
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
  23. Nov 1, 2020 at 10:47 AM
    #23
    Zero One Actual

    Zero One Actual Member among Members

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    I know her too.
     
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  24. Nov 1, 2020 at 11:10 AM
    #24
    jwatt

    jwatt I heart men

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    Sure. There are chinese-owned mediums that are used to spy on it s users; tik tok anyone? But lets be real. The monstor is google; hands down, and that s american owned if Im correct. Then theres facebook. Twitter is another one. They all spy on their users. As far as a vpn, you can lead a horse to water...for the folks that choose to overlook obvious issues, well, they will get what s coming to em. Many learn best by their mistaskes.
     
  25. Feb 6, 2023 at 2:15 AM
    #25
    GODZILLA

    GODZILLA Hail to the King, Baby.

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    Jwatt is never going to see that. He was banned a long time ago, and that post was over two years ago.
     
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  26. Feb 6, 2023 at 3:38 AM
    #26
    Retired...finally

    Retired...finally Utilizing that doctorate of procrastinatory arts

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    Every person I know that got hacked had one thing in common. They're computer login account gave them administrator capabilities.
     
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  27. Feb 6, 2023 at 4:42 AM
    #27
    hagrid

    hagrid The most diverse of Diversity Hires!

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    And I hacked CowpatTaco for being an anti-humor weenie.
     
  28. Mar 27, 2023 at 4:42 AM
    #28
    CowboyTaco

    CowboyTaco New Member

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    I like humor...when it's actually funny.

    Someone asked about LastPass having a security incident. This happens somewhat regularly. The first time or two, I thought "well, that's out of the way. Surely they will get their issues fixed and tighten security." It's happened enough times now that something has to be wrong with their internal processes and/or physical security standards. If you're using LastPass, assume that your stuff has been compromised. Find another password manager and change all of your passwords.

    Keepass is good if you don't mind the passwords being stored on your local device. The downside is that if your device crashes, you lose everything (i.e. no cloud backup).

    Dashlane is a pretty good cloud option.
     
  29. Mar 27, 2023 at 5:03 AM
    #29
    hagrid

    hagrid The most diverse of Diversity Hires!

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