Happy Data Privacy Day! Now change your password

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Today is Data Privacy Day  which is an event that is supposed to help raise awareness and promote discussion.

So here’s my discussion.

The first step to data privacy is to take it seriously yourself.  While it’s critical that big web sites like Google and others do the right thing when it comes to data privacy, it’s also important that users protect themselves.

The two most basic things that I see all the time that puts users at risk include:

1) Logging into websites that don’t have SSL/HTTPS
2) Not cycling passwords regularly

If you log into a website or service that doesn’t encrypt your credentials then anyone on the wire can sniff out that password. It’s not that hard to too. 

Keeping the same password for a long period of time or making it easily guessable are also bad moves – just ask Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

So in honor of this Privacy Day I leave you with one simple suggestion: change your passwords today.