On the subject of electronic mischief, a story in the July 25 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek appeals to anyone whose computer or cellphone has been hacked — or to anyone who fears it could happen to them.
Setting aside some truly paranoid security measures, such as wearing sunglasses in public so that profiling computer programs can’t get images of your eyes, Bloomberg did offer three easy and reasonable suggestions:
• Clear your browser cookies and history regularly. Both hackers and the National Security Agency can intercept them, and clearing them forces snoopers to restart their processes.
• Subscribe to an identity theft monitoring service. These are advertised at $15 a month or less, and they do things like monitor hacker forums and watch for insurance claims filed in customers’ names.
• Use two-factor authentication. This is basically a second password designed to foil hackers who somehow got hold of your first one. Google, Facebook and Twitter, among other companies, offer to send you a one-time password after you’ve entered your first one. Google also can generate a second password on your phone to avoid the chance of interception. As for cellphones, most services let customers add a second password to their account if they want it.
The odds of being hacked probably are still small. But it does happen, and there is definitely help available — much of it at no charge — for those who want extra protection.
