Online Personal Security - just a friendly reminder

                                                           

Last week was my fake birthday-

And the only reason I remembered this is because someone in my inner circle sent me an email that said, "fake happy birthday – hahaha."

This particular fake birthday was on my personal Facebook page.

I don't do anything with my page, and it still shows that I'm engaged, so you can see how often I go to it.

But, my wife tells me I did get a bunch of kind messages for my fake birthday.

Of course, I have a fake birthday because when setting up accounts, I never give out my factual information.

When you have to fill out the security questions such as-

"where did you and your wife go on your first date?"

"What is your favorite animal?"

"who was your childhood best friend?"

I always give false information (disinformation) that way, it's harder for someone to hack my accounts.

When you do this, you need to have a way to keep your correct login information safely.

One fellow I know has a hard copy of all his logins that way; nothing is on the internet.

Other folks I know have an encrypted USB drive with all their information. (Kingston, Aegis and Apricorn make secure drives.)

I do have a hard copy backup that's locked in a fireproof safe.

But I prefer the encrypted USB drive, especially when I'm traveling.

If heaven forbid I ever lose all my passwords; at least I know they're on an encrypted drive that people can't access.

I know that all of us have a gazillion passwords these days, so figure out the best method for you for keeping track of it all.

Also, don't forget to give out disinformation so that some hacker can't simply answer a security question (such as your favorite restaurant) and have access to your accounts.