Verizon at Home

[#1]

It’s your mother’s maiden name, or the name of your hometown or a combination of your pets’ names.

Some people can get imaginative with the words or names they use to make up their passwords for online accounts, whether it’s your bank, email or wireless router.  Others, like in this bit from the Marx Brothers, may make it too easy for the passwords to be stolen.  But, even if your passwords are so complicated you have to write them down to remember them, they’re not failsafe.  As illustrated by Groucho and Chico.

With so many Americans banking online, shopping at cyber outlets or communicating vital business documents via their personal computers, online security is a crucial element in protecting their identity and personal financial information.  Let’s face it.  That’s what the hackers are after.  Nonetheless, many people set their passwords and never change them, exposing themselves to cyber thieves.  Some bob along, blissfully assuming default passwords set by services or equipment makers, are good enough.

Security experts recommend changing passwords for online accounts and Internet access hardware on a regular basis to help protect against hacking of those accounts or home networks.  At the very least, consumers should change default passwords set for new computers or wireless home routers as soon as they are installed.  Instructions for changing these passwords are normally included with setup guidelines for the equipment and are easy to follow.

For example, the wireless router provided with Verizon FiOS Internet service comes with a default password that installers may have personalized for you but that customers should check to be sure it’s private, not a default password. It also is suggested that you increase the encryption setting on the router to the strongest level compatible with your home network, with WPA2 being the first choice.  Instructions on changing encryption of a home network are available on the Verizon.com broadband support website, under “Networking” and the subcategory of “Wireless home network security.”   A guide to online security settings can be found here.

Whether it’s encryption or passwords, the best advice is make them as strong as possible (mixing in capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols as well, as in “Fluffy2Rover!#3) and, with passwords, change them regularly to avoid becoming a victim of hackers and identity thieves.

[#2]

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