Senior News Line: Protect yourself from scams

The Federal Trade Commission has some great consumer advice about keeping your online information safe from scammers.

With new breaches and thefts being reported all the time, we need to know as much as we can. See consumer.ftc.gov/node/77479 for a detailed list of suggestions and help.

Keeping your software up to date is at the top of the list, and it makes sense. After all, your devices could include cellphones, computers, smart TVs and more. Turn on “automatic updates” so those are installed without you needing to remember.

At the same time, your home’s Wi-Fi network needs monitoring. At that FTC link, click on the information to secure your network.

One of the suggestions is “Choose an automatically generated password” and it gives links to the various browsers for more detailed information, such as Chrome, Mac and Firefox.

My personal opinion: You don’t need a third party or anything automatically generated to help you come up with a strong password.

To create a password, don’t use any known information such as your mother’s maiden name or somebody’s date of birth.

Use information that is likely only known to you, or better yet, use a short phrase — but be sure it’s at least 15 characters long. Then intersperse that phrase with numbers, capital letters and symbols.

Example of your phrase: I really hate scammers. Then insert numbers and symbols: I*really693#HATE@@scammers##.

And, yes, it’s a pain to remember all that just to sign into an account online. And perhaps you’ll need to write it down — but that’s OK as long as you keep the information nearby, but not next to the computer where someone else can find it.

The link at the FTC page has much more information, including what to do if you somehow do get scammed.