Today I got two friendly alerts from Have I Been Pwned, a free service that tracks data breaches and tells you if your info was exposed. It told me that my old passwords for Kickstarter and Bitly, breached in 2014, were now publicly available (though encrypted) online.

A while back, I woke up to find my Android phone lingering at a pattern unlock screen. Not just to unlock my screen, but a prompt to decrypt all of my phone's data. I was puzzled. Every other morning, I decrypted my device using a 10-digit, alphanumeric passphrase -- something I perceived, accurately, as being infinitely more secure than tracing a dumb pattern with my finger.

Password management services such as LastPass and 1Password are great because they make it easy to keep all your online accounts protected by using a single encrypted master password… at least in theory.

The US government recently revamped its password recommendations, abandoning its endorsement of picking a favourite phrase and replacing a couple characters with symbols, like c4tlo^eR. These short, hard-to-read passwords look complicated to humans but very very simple to computers.

Cybercrime is growing, and anyone can fall victim to ransomware, data dumping, and the like. That's why it's important now more than ever to ensure your online accounts are secure, and while there are plenty of tools out there to help you do so, few can match what RoboForm Everywhere brings to the table.

Police in South Australia are looking for the right to compel users to give up passwords to computers in order to access encrypted information. With the federal government already looking for ways to force tech companies to unlock devices, it seems that things are escalating when it comes to the rights for law enforcement to access our devices.

No company, be it a startup or a conglomerate, has a perfect security system. Chipotle's payment system was hacked, OneLogin experienced a data breach, and even Google had a run in with a bad phishing exploit that left thousands of accounts compromised from a shared document. In other words, I'm wary about giving any info to companies that don't have a track record of keeping it safe.

Although storing passwords in plaintext anywhere online is fundamentally the opposite of security, routine data breaches at some of the world's biggest companies haven't dissuaded some users from engaging in this obviously terrible practice.

OneLogin, an identity management software company, announced yesterday that it suffered a data breach. Although the firm hasn't provided many details, the few that it has released suggest that the breach is extensive.

One of the primary vehicles used by bad guys to access our systems is stealing log-in credentials in order to impersonate real users. All the security processes and tools in the world are circumvented when someone has your username and password. That's where two-factor authentication (2FA) comes into play. 2FA works by adding another authentication challenge to the equation. It's not just about what you know - your password, it's also about something you have. That's where the authenticator apps from Microsoft and Google come into play.

The recent HipChat breach served as a timely reminder -- always be vigilant when it comes to site security. Sadly, some companies are a little... loose when it comes to hardening their online presence and others even go to the extreme of -- unintentionally -- handing the bad guys the keys. Here are some examples that'll have you wincing in your chair.

The majority of Australians still suck at password creation. Chances are, you either use a bunch of different passwords that are easy to remember (and therefore, easy to crack) or one "tricky" password that you use for everything. From a security perspective, both are terrible options.

If you fall into one of the flimsy camps above, this in-depth infographic will help turn your email into a digital Fort Knox. It contains a multitude of tips consolidated into one image - including essential dos and dont's.

Using a password manager is basically internet security 101 these days, but that doesn't make them any less intimidating. If you've never used a password manager, they're annoying, cumbersome to use, and baffling at a glance. 1Password is one of the easiest to use options around, but that doesn't mean you don't need some help setting it up.

Last week, news got out that two prisoners in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction were caught with a few hacked together computers hidden in the ceiling above a closet. What'd they do with these computers? Aside from obviously downloading porn, they were also laying down a wide variety of scams and hacks.

LastPass is one of the most prominent password managers around. It's extremely convenient but if it were hacked, it would be quite the pain in the arse for users. In a blog post, the company has warned that a major exploit has been discovered and outlined what action users should take immediately.

Instagram has finally pushed out the update they tested over a year ago that adds two-factor authentication to its accounts. Here's how to set it up.

WhatsApp has rolled out two-step verification for all its users. The feature, which was previously in beta for Android, now works on all platforms.

Most parents wish they had more time to spend with their kids. They also waste untold hours staring at their smartphones. It doesn't take a child genius to see the connection here. If you spend a chunk of every weekend checking social media apps and surfing the web, it might be time to put your children in charge of your mobile devices.

Here's a novel solution. This weekend, let your kids reset the password or parental lock on your phone - without watching them do it.

As we've established time and again, your clever tricks aren't protecting your password. If you or someone you know uses Bible references as a password, that trick is pretty easy to crack, too.