There has always been bad guys. In the past Bonnie and Clyde stole money from banks, stores, and gas stations. John Dillinger, with his gang, robbed banks of large sums of money and police stations of guns and ammunition.
What distinguishes these crooks is that they did it all in person. They walked into a bank or store and looked the victims right in the eye. They held the loot in their hands as they made their getaway.
Now thieves and robbers use computers and the Internet. Cash is so passé. A few numbers garnered from identity theft and the money is transferred into ghost accounts. Botnets, computers connected into networks and programmed to steal, easily take more in minutes than Dillinger took in his lifetime. Even banks like Wells Fargo get in on the action when they see the sums that can be produced with just a few key strokes on a computer.
Passwords are a pain to create and remember. One site wants a certain format, another site wants something different. Using the same password for everything means that once broken it can be used everywhere. Password programs are little help because they seem to get confused so often.
If you think that you are to small and insignificant to be a target you are wrong. The botnet doesn't care who you are or how much you have, it wants it all. It starts with a list of accounts and methodically goes to each one to see if it is able get in. If it can, it takes everything. One cent or one million dollars are all the same to it.
The bad guy in Romania or China will never walk into your bank or look you in the eye but they will have all your money just the same.
Use clever passwords. Use a pass phrase if possible. The longer the better since that takes more time to break. Something like “1968YamahaDT-1Enduro” is not easily guessable. It may sound cold hearted but you want the bot to give you a pass so it can rob the next guy.
Read your bank statement and balance your account often. I'm amazed at the number of people who have only a vague idea of how much money they have and where it is going. That's what Wells Fargo was counting on with their fraudulent scheme.
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