Not long ago it was the anniversary of the Playstation hack, you can imagine the outrage if it happened now but back then it was just as stressful. I was worried about my details and what was going to happen and just wanted to reset everything I could and remove any of my bank details. Back then I wasn't one to care about my bank details being attached to an account and was pretty laid back about it but because this happened it helped me realise I need to be more serious when it comes to what details I save online. A few months back I had a lot of fb statuses from my fb memories talking about the hack and how worried I was about my details, when PSN came back online they were rolling out emails for people to change their details and mine was taking a while to come through so I started to panic, it's an understandable thing to worry about though.
Since then I worry about what's attached to that account and try to be as cautious as I can. This is a big reason why I think others should be more cautious especially if you have kids and they use your account, I have seen so many stories about how someone's child has racked up a giant bill and they've had to get in touch with Microsoft or playstation to try and get a refund. But what I don't understand is if you have children and they use your account why is putting security measures in place often an afterthought? You could say the same for me when I didn't put more security measure in place for my PSN back in the day but in this day and age it's clear that security breaches are more often than we realise.
I was pretty devastated when PSN was hacked, playing online with my friends was a good escape for me but I ended up using Skype to talk to them instead which I suppose was better alternative at the time, although I no longer use Skype now it kind of run its course with me. I can imagine just how hard it was back in 2011 for developers releasing online games only for people to not be able to play, as well as games journalists needing to review a game. Luckily there are a lot of games you can play offline and the beauty of that being able to concentrate on my gaming backlog. Perhaps I have become a little paranoid due to all of this but it's understandable when you look at the bigger picture.
PSN gift cards are a brilliant way to buy what you want without having to attach your bank details to your account, they do these for Xbox and Nintendo Playstation and steaming, I encourage anyone who don't want to attach their bank account details to their accounts to use these, they also make the perfect gift for those who buy games digitally and if you're unsure of what to get them as a gift, they're the play it safe kind of gift most people go for when you're unsure what game someone has. I've had countless times where I have had to change my password for certain websites fearing the worst, that may sound pathetic but the online world is important to me and yes a lot of us have private stuff in our lives that we don't want others to know about and I have a big reason for this which is due to the harassment I have received online over the years, I should be allowed to have parts of my life stay private even if its a private blog I have, but then again what you put online can stay there forever so it's not risk free anyways.
There are ways to find out if your email has been compromised before, I have used a few websites to find out but I'm not sure how accurate they were but they matched up with what websites I had used before who had never told me there had been a breach on their website or app, I don't know if this is illegal or not but it made me feel very uneasy and I ended up deleting my accounts with these websites and apps because of this, which is sad in a way as safety should always come first but unfortunately these things can happen and websites can be completely unaware that they have until months later.
Internet safety may be the last thing you think of when it comes to letting your kids use it but it should be your first priority, even down to keeping your profile private on consoles as the smallest bit of information can often be a big giveaway for some people. I think it was on twitter some used a girls image as an example, she was standing outside her home and it had her house number and from that they explained how simple it was to find someone. Same goes for uploading images of your kids with their uniform on or even tagging a location you're currently at, people can find you and go out of their way to keep an eye on your movements.
Since I have gone through a lot of harassment online and had so much hate thrown my way I try to be safe online, I get worried about others trying to get into my accounts as anyone can learn to hack these days, and yes it sounds ridiculous but when you're forced to become more vigilant online due to others you learn how to be more secure online. Even down to your domain people can find you this is why it's important to make sure you put the steps in place to hide your details, I know a good portion of people who don't do this as they like when others get in touch and sends them stuff without them giving their address out but for me I find this as a breach of my privacy. The reason I'm mostly writing this is because we all need a reminder to check that nothing weird is going on be that with our children online or the accounts we use to login everyday, so the question is how important is internet safety to you?
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