Digital Housekeeping

Every so often, you should review your online privacy and security procedures. Consider the following, some of which will repeat what it is said on the main page. Though maybe not all of these suggestions will apply to you.

1. Check your email addresses and phone number on the site, Have I Been Pwned to see if your data appears on data dumps from hacked websites. Have I Been Pwned is run by a respected security researcher who periodically checks the dark web looking for data collected from sites that have suffered security breaches. If your email or phone number appears on any site listed there, change your password immediately.
2. Do you use a password manager? Do consider it. A password manager is an app that stores all your passwords in one place, which you then you access through one master password. Good password managers include:
   • 1Password
   • Bitwarden
   • KeePassXC
   • ProtonPass      
3.  Review your passwords.  Do you use the same password on different sites? This is a bad idea - it's having one key for all the locks you use. Lose your key and everything you have locked up is at risk. Hackers, when they get an email & password combination, will use it to try to log in to lots of different sites, just like trying a key on lots of different locks. Don't use variations of the same password on different sites, either. Instead, think about using:
   • a password manager
   • a long, but memorable phrase
   • a randomly generated password   
   
   The most important passwords to review are:
   • Your bank account
   • Your credit card
   • Your main email address
   • Your utilities
   • Any retail websites that have your credit card saved 
   • Your social media logins
   • Any other website that you have a strong emotional connection to (e.g., forums, blogs)
4. For critical logins, consider 2-factor authentication (2FA), where you need two pieces of evidence to access your account. An example of 2FA would be withdrawing cash from an ATM - you need your bank card and a PIN to be able to withdraw money. There are several 2FA methods avalable, including
   • Authenticator apps
   • Biometric data, for example, using using facial recognition or a fingerprint
   • Mobile phone-based authentication using a code sent to your phone 
5. Set a recovery email for your accounts. Check that it's up-to-date and you can still access it.
6. Search your email archives for some common words in new account emails - e.g "login", "username", "activate", "welcome" to find accounts for sites that you may have forgotten. The fewer forgotten accounts you have, the less likely your data will appear in a security breach.
7. If you use a cloud storage account like Dropbox or Google Drive, periodically remove folders and files that you don't need to keep stored there. Make sure you have an offline copy of everything stored in the cloud
8. Backup your data! What would happen if you lost your phone or your laptop or your device got corrupted? Think about acquiring an external storage device  - a portable hard drive for example, where you can store important information