Cloud Security and Password Management

Phishing attacks continue, your cloud security is in your password management…

I hear it everyday, “I don’t want my data in the cloud, I worry about cloud security”.  Yet the same people that tell me that, also email me from gmail, hotmail or even aol.   They are logging into their bank account everyday.  Guess what, you are in the cloud!

Hopefully, you are using good password techniques.  For ideas on password management, look at this Life Hacker article. OK, the days of using “password” or your child’s name are over.

What is prompting this post is an email that went out a few days ago from Xero.  They prompted you to

change your password due to the possibility of some accounts being compromised.  This is a great opportunity to increase your cloud security profile and adopt good password management practices.

Xero wants you know that the emails that were not intended to be sent to US based Xero users.  The issues were detected in Australia, and Xero is increasing their security efforts globally to stay ahead of these malicious attacked, as outlined here.

The key here for your cloud security is good password management and keeping your computer up to date.  That means applying patches for your OS timely, and having a good anti-virus/anti-malware solution installed.

In addition, keep an eye on your emails for phishing scams, you can read more about that from an earlier post Phishing Attacks are increasing, Please BEWARE!.