Journey to Security

I am Daryl, a volunteer with SCTC. One of my areas is compiling the New Bulletins that are sent out. Lately, there has been some very scary data breaches. I need to heed them and try to practice what we preach.

What I am doing does not mean it is how you would approach this challenge. SCTC is available to advise you on your process. We have volunteers who are very knowledgeable in this area. You can engage with us by email (infosctc@friendslongmont.org), filling out a request for help form, or by calling our hotline, 303-834-7703.

After looking at North's video and the handout I was really scared. I have a touch of ADD, so when thinking of all of what I need to do; I tend to freeze. Take a step at a time I thought to myself.

I have known from some time that many of my account ids and passwords need attention. So, I decided to start with my Gmail account that is in common with too many other accounts. Laziness, I guess, is my excuse. I am taking this step first, because for some reason I am avoiding the credit freeze and IRS recommendation; for now. I am debating calling them vs. setting up yet another online account with each. Why are there three separated credit services?

As part of the services of one of my credit cards, I do get notifications when there is any activity in my credit reports. These somewhat protects me, but I think the door still might be open.

So, for Gmail (Google), I thought I would come up with a weird pass phrase that includes some numeric and special character substitutions for the real letters in the phrase. Also, I wanted to get rid of one of the old password managers I was using, Lastpass; that was "fun". For now, I will continue to use two choices that overlap, Edge (Microsoft) and Chrome (Google). This is because I use too many different PC platforms and mobile devices.

Two interesting things happened. I use a Chromebook and a Kindle Fire. Chromebooks use the Google password. I had to also supply my old Google password to get all to work ok. On the Kindle Fire, it just would not take the new password to sign into Gmail. I had to remove the Gmail account, and add it back in. But I am safer now. By the way, I have two factor authentication and a backup email account and cell phone number in my profile so I can change my password if I forget the old one.

I think next will be my Bank account. I already have two factor authentication on it. Also, I am going to call one of the reporting agencies and see if they recommending setting up things with a phone call or by creating an account.

More to follow, this is going to take some time and planning.