Russian hackers steal 1 billion passwords – now what?

Change your passwords every six months or after news of a breach

Change your passwords every six months or after news of a breach

Reports on “the biggest hack ever” recently surfaced. A Russian hacker group allegedly captured 1.2 billion unique username and password combinations.

With this latest security breach, AVAST encourages consumers to take necessary precautions. Change your passwords immediately and if you’re using the same password somewhere else, you must change it there, too. Choose complex passwords so it will be more difficult for hackers to de-encrypt them. In general, we recommend changing passwords every three to six months, or after news of a breach.

A password manager like avast! EasyPass helps encrypt and protect personal information online, with random, strong passwords. avast! Easy Pass generates complex passwords and removes the inconvenience of having to remember them.

If financial and credit card data is compromised in an online threat, AVAST advises users to monitor and check their accounts for unauthorized charges and to immediately report any suspicious activities to their bank or card provider.

Interested in reading more?

Try our articles on creating strong passwords:  Do you hate updating your passwords whenever there’s a new hack? and My password was stolen. What do I do now?

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