Quick Tips
Credit Karma Can Show You What Passwords You Really Need to Stop Using
We all know that, in order to keep your online accounts and data protected, you shouldn’t reuse passwords. Of course, actually sticking to that sound advice can be a bit more challenging. Moreover, if you’ve since wised up and changed your ways, accounts you may have forgotten about could still leave to trail for hackers to follow, leaving a wake of damage along the way. Admittedly, this is something I’ve recently fallen victim to.
Last month — while in Vegas, incidentally — I woke up to a different kind of Hangover. As I was about to get started working for the day, I got an e-mail from Spotify notifying me that I had changed my password. The problem? I hadn’t. Since I still had the app open on my computer, I was still able to access my account and, sure enough, saw that the e-mail address had been updated and new playlists were being assembled. Thankfully, after a chat with Spotify that included verifying that I was who I said I was, I regained control of my account. Even then, though, I was still mildly terrified, leading me to go on a password-changing spree.
As it turns out, had I been paying more attention to Credit Karma, I may have been able to save myself a bit of a scare. Although there are several features I frequently use on Credit Karma, for some reason, their (free) Identity Monitoring tools were not among them. That should change now as I’ve realized how helpful that page can be. In addition to offering a list of compromised passwords you should no longer use, it also catalogs other breaches you’ve been found in — even if it can’t say exactly what the password that was exposed was.
Given those dots to connect, I’m guessing that my Spotify incident came as a result of the Canva hack in May 2019. In other words, I had plenty of time to see this issue and take action. I should also note that this is now the second time I’ve experienced something like this after my Starbucks account was compromised as the result of my using an ancient password. Fool me once…
Take it from someone who well knows: having someone access your accounts is never a good feeling. In this case, I was actually quite lucky that more damage wasn’t done (mostly because I’m only slightly smart enough to make my banking and e-mail passwords different). So, in addition to bringing more variety to your passwords from here on out, might I also recommend checking out Credit Karma to see where your information may have been exposed? It just might save you some heartache down the road.
Quick TipsWith last Friday being July 4th, I decided to take a week off from posting. However, I wanted to share a story from that night (or, really, early the next morning). Backing up, last year, we learned that our neighbors loved fireworks. So we were prepared for a few hours of noise and helping our...
Travel TipsLate last year, I had a chance to cross another Las Vegas Strip property off my list with a stay at The Palazzo at The Venetian. Whether because of that or because I opened a players club card with them as well, this week The Venetian sent me a survey regarding a potential rewards credit...
Quick TipsOne funny thing about summer is how a sunny day can quickly turn into a heavy downpour. This is even more prominent in certain parts of the country where you may be headed on a summer vacation (I'm looking at you, Florida!). So, given that weather reality, it makes perfect sense that Allbirds would be...
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Thankfully is has never happened to me. But thanks for the info about credit Karma and for the reminder that passweords should always be updated.
This is a good tool which I didn’t know about, but I try to change my password every 2-3 months.