Imagine you log into your Facebook or Instagram account and find that it’s been hacked. Someone learned of your password, and now they have access.
Luckily, aside from a few embarrassing posts, there’s not much wrong there. You delete the posts, make a few mea culpas, and people forget about it after a few weeks.
You laugh it off, forgetting that your bank, Amazon account, and others, all use the same email address as your password and login.
Slowing, behind the scenes, someone has been posting reviews for products, buying stuff and having it shipped elsewhere, and slowly siphoning off your money. You don’t notice, until your auto-bill pay for your car payment fails to complete due to there not being enough money in your account.
The average email address has between 90 and 130 accounts linked to it. Some are used once and forgotten, others tend to be very important.
By using the same user name (email address) and password for your accounts, you make it that much easier for someone to hack your account.
You might ask, shouldn’t banks and other important websites have blocks against that – and you’d be right, but they’re not foolproof, nor does everyone have the same level of protection. Never rely on someone else’s protection, when you can do things to protect yourself.
Creating a different strong password for each website account is a good first step. Use a password manager if you need help, and never forget, if you can’t come up with good passwords on your own, we’ve got a random password generator you can use.