Data breach exposes passwords to nearly 10,000 user accounts.
On Saturday, August 15, 2020, the Treasury Board of Canada announced that the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) website was hacked and that 9,041 user accounts were compromised. The CRA responded by shutting down their website and canceling the affected accounts. They are currently contacting the users.
Even if you are not one of the users in this data breach, take this as a warning. Use strong and unique passwords for all of your online accounts. We all know this to be true, but few heed the advice. The hackers in this case utilized a method called “credential stuffing” where they used usernames and passwords collected from previous hacks of other sites. A common mistake people make is using the same password on multiple websites. You now understand why this is dangerous.
So what should you do now?
As soon as the CRA website is back up and running, change your password to something strong and unique. Don’t delay. Next, change passwords for your other online services. Yes, we know it is a pain.
This is where TechnoMinds can help.
We know password fatigue is a big problem. We know trying to remember passwords is nearly impossible, let alone strong ones. Don’t write them on paper next to your computer or worse yet, in a file on the computer. We at TechnoMinds have lots of experience with this and we can set you up with a password manger app and train you how to use it.