Passwords: is my email leaked?

I’ve changed the passwords on my blogs.

From Yahoo:

You can use a site called, appropriately enough, “Is my email leaked?” if you’d like to check the status of your Gmail, Yandex, or Mail.ru account. The site itself is safe, and you can even give a shortened version of your email address with asterisks if you’re concerned.

So I checked out my Gmail address.  The password was one I used to have on that account, though I had changed it after some previous widespread security breach. But it still was the password for both my primary blog and my TU blog.

I’m afraid of being THIS guy:

Permanent link to this comic: http://xkcd.com/936/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Permalink to this comic: http://xkcd.com/936/ Work licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Yeah, yeah, I know the poor password mantras; bad on me, though the current advice is more nuanced. In any case, I’ve changed the passwords.
***
Just this week, we got a form from the Daughter’s school asking if she wanted to participate in some dental program, which we declined because we have dental insurance. The form asked for her Social Security Number, which we declined to provide. since it is in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

2 thoughts on “Passwords: is my email leaked?”

  1. Good catch on the Social Security thing; I was always amazed at the inappropriate or illegal questions the school would send home as a matter of course.

  2. I have two web-based email accounts they monitor, neither one was compromised. I was potentially affected by the Adobe hack, but changed my password for that which, as it happens, was a password and email address that I didn’t use for anything else, anyway.

    I’ve since started using LastPass (https://lastpass.com/) to both generate strong passwords and to keep them safer from hackers.

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