Universal logins may risk compromises of all connected accounts, including your work accounts
Many applications offer “signing up” using a universal login from social media or email application (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Google). This feature was designed to make it easier to access social media and other accounts for customers.
If you use the same login or connect your accounts, hackers can more easily gain access to all of your connected accounts, including stealing your sensitive data, pictures, accounts, credit card numbers, bank accounts, email addresses and passwords. Hackers can lock you out of your accounts and use your accounts to scam your family, friends and employers, or use compromised passwords to attempt to compromise your work accounts.
ACTION STEPS:
- Try not to connect multiple social media or other accounts together using your Google, Facebook or other universal logins.
- If you have connected your accounts you can update your login credentials to have separate sign-ons.
- Always use Multifactor Authentication for all social media and other accounts which will make it harder to hack.
- Update your passwords to ensure that each account has a unique, long and strong password (16+ characters, numbers, symbols) that can’t be used to compromise your other accounts.
See our CTR Cyber page for more cybersecurity internal controls and contact [email protected] with any incidents or suspected incidents of fraud or cyber threats or if you need support from our Statewide Risk Management Team.