Writing.Com General Discussion

I don't blame Writing.com for this. I've done IT work and it insanely difficult to stay ahead of the bad guys. All the software to run a website is complicated and no one is perfect in testing. There is always someone with the time and resources to pound away at a website's security until they get through. So, it is really only a matter of time before there will be a breach. The experts say (not me) that monitoring and containment is the best plan. Break up your data and spread it around so they will have to breach multiple computers to get it.

Your home security is very important as well. Be paranoid when you are online.

1 Make sure your router firmware is up to date (usually the setup is a modem to connect to the cable line and then a router between the modem and the computers. Your service provider will keep the modem up to date; it is up to you to keep your router up to date.)
2 Make sure your home passwords are complex. (Pick 3 words, 5 to 8 letters. Misspell at least one of them. Replace some of the letters with symbols[!,@,#,$,%,&,*,(,)] or numbers, put numbers between the words. Capitalize the last letter or two. For example, paper, knight, enchilada. papp3R90kn!6H+536en(#!1@DA. In this case, I chose to misspell paper. How do you remember this monster? See #5.)
3 Back up important data (quicken, tax, your writings, etc.) to an external drive that you unplug unless you are actively backing up.
4 Turn off your computer(s) when you are not using them (no one has the capability to break into a computer that is not on, yet.)
5 Have 3 or 4 passwords that you use for online accounts and use something like Bitwarden to manage them.
6 Don't pass files back and forth to your coworkers or friends in an email; use something like Dropbox.
7 If an email is from someone you don't know, do not open any attachments.
8 If someone has a cute video, tell them to put it up on Youtube.
9 Don't install any apps for your phone from any place but the legitimate outlets (Playstore, Apple's store, Amazon.)
10 Do not click on any add with scantily clad people in them!
11 Don't click on 'Clickbait'.

If you want to avoid being tracked through the internet, use the Firefox browser and the DuckDuckGo search engine. It's not perfect but it is a step in the right direction. Using a VPN is even better.

Now, it looks like someone has posted a bunch of poorly worded stories with bad punctuation and grammar into my account. It's going to take a while to tell them apart from my own work.

Good luck and keep writing,
Dirque