“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

This famous quote from Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, gives insight into how two forces, like good and evil, are equal rivals contending for survival. The same goes for the world of cyber security. We have a world of information, convenience, and entertainment at our fingertips, and yet, in that world, there are dangers and possibilities to have valuable information stolen.

In Alex Roger’s time.com article, “UPS: We’ve Been Hacked,” Roger’s reports on the newest breach within The UPS. “The United Parcel Service announced Wednesday that customers’ credit and debit card information at 51 franchises in 24 states may have been compromised.” Rogers continues, “The malware began to infiltrate the system as early as January 20, but the majority of the attacks began after March 26.” Even though the breach was wide ranging, UPS assured that on August 11 the threat was resolved.

UPS issued a public statement, “The customer information that may have been exposed includes names, postal addresses, email addresses and payment card information. Not all of this information may have been exposed for each customer. Based on the current assessment, The UPS Store has no evidence of fraud arising from this incident.” UPS went on to say that it is safe to shop at all of the UPS branches.

As fiction continually tells us in pros and verse, good and evil will always be at odds with each other, just as Dickens foreshadows in A Tale of Two Cities. So what can we do about it? Well, our job is twofold. We need to be sure to follow the Password Best Practices (PBP) and petition applications and companies that we use on a daily bases to start supporting Two-factor.

Password Best Practices

Password Best Practice (PBP) is the easiest way to accomplish login security to your applications and portals to access private information. PBP gives practical advice on how to strengthen your password, how often to change your password, what not to do with your password, and much more. By enforcing and educating users on PBP, you are on your way to achieving stronger passwords and making logins more secure. PennState has done a great job outlining the Password Best Practices on their site. The article is a great resource and reminder of what we should be doing with our passwords.

What you can do to about Two-factor Authentication

You may ask yourself what you can do to ensure that private and person information is protected with two-factor. There are two things that one can do. First, if you have the sway and influence, there are identity management providers that provide usable two-factor, protecting against network attacks. Secondly, if you are only a user and have no influence in the IT Department, there is a great site that contains a Two-factor Authentication list. From this list you can send a direct request to those that are not currently supporting Two-factor Authentication. The list is a great way to see if your favorite applications and websites are doing their part in protecting your personal information from network attacks worldwide.

Even though we seem to be living in a constant state of “the best of times, it was the worst of times,” we can do our best to fight against the evil of stolen identities and by educating ourselves on Password Best Practices and petitioning companies to support Two-factor Authentication.