This is just a little friendly reminder. I had the most ODD email in my spam. I happened upon it by accident checking for something else to be sure it hadn't happened in there by accident. It had my email AND an old password in the header. Went on to claim it had hacked my webcam, video'd me and was ransoming these vids for money. Obviously I didn't believe that part (my webcam goes green when on) but it was disturbing enough. Said "don't call the police" etc. Obviously I am cautious in general but sometimes feel nervous putting so much out there on the internet. I recently had a "come to jesus" moment that I can't fully control that so I might as well embrace it as safely as possible. Now this. So the sites that used that old password still were almost all scrapbook related. I doubt that the breach was TLP related or any other larger scrapbook store, but I do think it could be a smaller/older scrap forum that was breached. I could be wrong and it might be nothing related. I did find 40ish old websites that had that password. Most were gone and what I could find I changed. It was a reminder to me that I've been rather lazy with my regular use sites like TLP. It's the same password for the last 10 years. So if you happen to be like me... there is no better time to review all your passwords. If you use google, they even will tell you which ones they have saved that are at risk. If you have multiple sites using the same password, alter each one slightly if you can. If someone does get ahold of a password, then at least they don't have access to a lot of them.
I just was so disturbed. It was mainly because my password was right there. I did need a good reminder to get them in order. There are so many passwords these days.
I do like using Google's password manager as it offers a random password that's, for lack of a better word right now, intricate. LOL Thanks for the reminder!
I have a throwaway password that I use for websites that don't have sensitive information on them. I will my browser memorize and store those passwords. However, I never have it memorize passwords for banks, health care, paypal, etc. I do have those listed in a file on my computer but they are coded. I once had my email broken into a very long time ago. I had a simple repeated 3 letter word. In other news I was on what I would consider a throwaway site the other day and it required I create a password that had so many requirements that I made the password after my third attempt at making one: IHatePasswords123456!
If I ever got an email claiming they had hacked my webcam, I would automatically know it was fraudulent. I don't have a webcam. I have never used a webcam in all my years of computing!
I got that same email quite some time back as well. Even though it was an old password, it was very disconcerting, and I did go through and change it where it was still in use. Like @HavaDrPepper, I don't have a webcam hooked up. The only one I own hasn't been connected in years (I have no idea if it's even compatible anymore), so at least that part was easy to ignore. And if they had somehow accessed the camera on my phone, the worst they could have would just be up-the-nose shots of me playing games.
They come built in to all the laptops which is all I use these days. I can facetime on mine and I use it for zoom but that's it. I've never been one to cover it but I am glad it turns green when in use.
I used that this time for several. I have a book I've tracked it all in otherwise with all the changes I made I'd never know how to log in. lol
I don't use a laptop. Can't read the screen anymore... my eyes are bad. That's why I have 2 screens... I like lots of screen space especially when I'm scrapping. The laptop I do have is so old, I'm not even sure it had one and when I had to use it when my desktop crashed last year, it was slower than molasses. A camera was never something I was wanting when I bought a computer.
That's cute but I'd never be able to read what I wrote! My handwriting has gotten so shaky over time that I can't even read what I wrote just minutes before at times. I use a spreadsheet with a name that no one would associate with being for passwords.
I have every laptop's camera in the whole house covered! That's the first thing I do if we get a new laptop! People have called me "paranoid" for years, but this happened to my sister recently. There was somebody REALLY watching her on her camera! She said she wished she'd listened to me years ago.
She was terrified, Kat! When she told me about her experience, then I got freaked out, too! The scammer was posing as an Xfinity Rep and she said it seemed so legitimate. My sister is no slouch about these things, and she totally believed that it was Xfinity. They "walked her through" the troubleshooting and after about a half an hour, they told her to look at her screen and there she was! These scammers were extremely slick!
I use the strong passwords too though I do have one long one that has a very specific combo for a few accounts. And yes, my iMac camerawomen is covered with a pink skinny sticky over the top of the computer. When I go into a Zoom meeting now, I suddenly realize I need to slide it over cause my virtual background looks like a opaque pink overlay!
