What happens if your Xbox Live account gets hacked? Tracey over at Kotaku has investigated and found that Microsoft’s processes can sometimes take months to resolve the issue if it gets resolved at all, despite recent changes meant to speed up the restoration of hacked accounts. A good read (and a precautionary tale about online services which have access to your credit card details). [Kotaku]
Dear Lifehacker, I understand that signing up for “free” services like Gmail and Facebook requires that I put my trust in a company and provide them with quite a bit of private personal data. I know that data is supposed to be kept private, but with the amount of information and web activity that’s tracked every day I’m started to worry. How paranoid should I be, and is there any way I can ensure my data isn’t being used in ways I don’t want? Thanks, Paranoid About Privacy More »
Today is Safer Internet Day in Australia, where tech-savvy people (that’s you, Lifehacker readers!) are encouraged to help the less-informed to avoid net nasties while online. To help along with that process, we’ve gathered together our most helpful guides to online security. Share and enjoy! More »
There are plenty of services that promise to keep your passwords safe, secure and synchronised across devices behind a single master password that you can remember, but Dashlane is a new service that does that, audits those passwords for strength, saves your form information for quick entry on new websites and even keeps track of the purchases you make with that information so you can see it all in one view — one that’s only available to you, not even Dashlane employees. More »
Windows/iOS/Android: Symantec is getting in on the cloud-based password management business with the launch of Norton Identity Safe, a new desktop and mobile password management service opening its beta to the public today. More »
Vodafone is offering postpaid customers with Android phones the ability to add a McAfee Mobile Security subscription to their service for $3 a month. Is that a sensible investment? More »
The latest update to our favourite password-storing and syncing tool LastPass allows you to import and export your Wi-Fi passwords and store them as a secure note in the software. Normally your Wi-Fi passwords are only stored on your computer, but if you want to sync them between machines, or be able to look them up from any internet-connected device, you’ll now be able to do that. More »
The internet can bring you a lot of joy, but it can also turn into a world of pain the moment you make one stupid mistake. Perhaps you’ve been feeding the trolls, using “password” as your password, or selling your soul for access to a “free” web app. Your dumb mistakes can come back to bite you in the arse if you aren’t careful. Here’s how you can save yourself from yourself online. More »
Google Alerts can be a great tool for monitoring any search term you care about — including your own name and information. This means you can use Google Alerts to regularly check if a thief is using your info anywhere online. More »
Mac: If you’ve been shying away from popular online password managers like LastPass due to security concerns, Aussie developer Ergun Coruh has a simple solution that gives you total control of where your passwords are stored. MiniBluebox is a drag-and-drop system that gives you everything you need in a password manager, including 512-bit encryption, synchronisation and more. More »
