What should the password be? How to come up with it?
Adviсe
When you register with email, VKontakte or anywhere else, you are asked to come up with a password and remember it. You should not make a password too short or too simple. Why? Because then someone can pick it up. Maybe now you are thinking: “Who might need to guess my password?” However, when it does happen, you will only have yourself to blame. If you make the password “123456” or “qwerty”, then it will be too easy to guess such a password.
View tips on what the password should be
- The password must be long enough (at least 8 characters).
- Use capital letters, small letters, and preferably some other symbols in your password - and mix it all up. Remember that the same word with a capital letter and with a small letter are different passwords!
- Practice entering it somewhere in advance. When you register, when you enter your password, you will only see dots (symbols) on the screen as you enter the password (this is done so that no one can peek), so you need to be prepared for this.
- Most importantly: remember your password! Remember on which layout - English or Russian to type it, where there are large letters in it, where there are small ones, where the numbers are - in general, exactly everything about how to type it. If you make a mistake in even one character, it will no longer be the same password.
Attention! Even the most complex password will not protect your page if you have a virus on your computer or an SMS interceptor on your phone, or if you click on suspicious links. This will be discussed further. Read to the end.
Do I have a strong password? Yes or no?
Food for thought: 97% of Russians said they use good passwords. The study found that 95% of all passwords contain only letters or numbers, and only 4.7% have additional characters. Half of those surveyed admitted that they rarely or never changed their passwords, even if they were hacked. It turns out that in reality only 4% of people have good passwords. Therefore, if you do not want to be hacked, make yourself a strong password as soon as possible.
Why is verification needed?
Why was the verification required? Computers have IP addresses. They do not belong to the device; one IP can be used by an entire city block. But based on the data received, it is possible to identify the owner of the page.
When does the check work? It is used if the current address does not match the usual one. When might this happen?
- You are accessing through a different network.
- You use a computer at work.
- Use VPN or Tor.
- Use the "Turbo" function in the browser.
- Another person logged into the page.
In fact, such a system is simple and ingenious. Strangers will not be able to access the page, even if they have chosen the username and password. Of course, hackers can bypass the verification system, but in any case it increases security. Therefore, the function is necessary for VK.
But is it possible to bypass the check if you do not have special knowledge? This is not always easy to do, so it is worth exploring the available methods.
Why should the password be kept secret?
If someone finds out your password, they will be able to gain access to the same places you have access to. For example, when you log into VK, you enter your email address with which you registered and your password. The address is usually not a secret, and if you also find out the password, the attacker will enter Contact as if it were you yourself. But that’s not so bad - after all, he will be able to change the password, and then you will no longer be able to log in!
Now you understand that the password cannot be told to anyone and cannot be written down on a piece of paper.
Using Thor, Opera browser and more
If you use the above browsers or VPN, then you need to do the following. First, switch to another browser (Chrome, Mozilla, etc.). If you really like Opera, then at least turn off the Turbo mode. This will help. If using a VPN, disable it, connect directly and restart your browser. This should help. The use of anonymizers can also negatively affect such a thing as VKontakte security checks. How to remove it in this case? It’s very simple - don’t use anonymizers and other devices. However, the above methods may not work if this very check is tightly written into the system.
How not to lose your password and access to the page?
Be careful
Always remember that attackers need your password and are after it. For what? This is a different question, the reasons may be different. Even if you don’t have anything particularly valuable in VKontakte, your account itself is valuable to them. If they take possession of it, they will be able to send advertisements on your behalf (though not for long, because then this account will be blocked).
How can they take a bait and trick you out of your password? Situations are different. For example, you want to get into Contact, you start entering an address and make a mistake in one letter. Believe me, this happens very often. And the attackers also know this and in advance place their website, very similar to VK, at this seemingly erroneous address. You suspect nothing and enter your password there - and you gave it yourself.
We talk about known methods of attackers here, be aware:
- How did I get hacked? Why? The concept of "hacking"
Use a single start page to log into Contact and other sites - this is “Vhod.ru” (address vhod.ru). Set it as your start page (by the way, there is always a button at the top left for this purpose), and you will be protected from many troubles.
Protect yourself from viruses
Next: your computer can get a virus - you may not even know about it. A virus can redirect you to a scam site, even if you enter the site address correctly. Then everything is exactly the same: there you will enter your password and say goodbye to Kontaktik. By the way, fraudulent sites don’t last long, so it may look like this: you’re trying to log into Contact, but you get the error “Address not found” or just a blank page. How to cure this, read the instructions: Not included in Contact - what to do?
Tip: make sure there are no viruses on your computer. You must have a working antivirus and be updated regularly. But keep in mind that an antivirus, even a very licensed and updated one, is not a cure for all diseases. Therefore, you should not go to random sites and install anything on your computer. VKontakte itself recommends this antivirus: Cezurity Scanner - open the link and click “Install scanner”.
Do not install dubious programs on your phone
Recently, programs that intercept SMS messages and send them to attackers are increasingly found on the mobile phones of VK users. In this case, your page may be hacked and your phone number may be changed immediately. Your password, even a very complex one, will not protect you. Android phones are especially susceptible to this. Such programs can pretend to be harmless, and you need to be more careful about what you install. If a program requests access to SMS messages that is not needed for its operation, you should think about whether it was created by an attacker?
Link the page to a valid phone number
Take the time to link the page to your current mobile phone number. Instructions here:
- How to change the linked VKontakte phone number
This is necessary to restore access if you forget your password or if intruders find it out. If you change your phone number, be sure to link the page to the new number.
Enhanced Security: Login Confirmation
In the settings you can enable login confirmation via SMS. After this, when you log into the VK website with a password, you will also need to enter the code sent to you via SMS. This will increase the security of the page - because even if someone finds out your password, they will not be able to access your page. But at the same time, you will lose the opportunity to restore access via SMS if you forget your password, and you will have to use other methods. Read about it here: Quick VKontakte password recovery is not available.
Danger of tick bite
The season of outdoor recreation, picnics and trips to the country has begun.
But not everything is so wonderful - in addition to the summer season, the season of tick activity has begun!
This means you need to be very careful so that your vacation is not ruined!
The tick poses the greatest danger due to the fact that it can carry dangerous infections. The most common of them are encephalitis and borreliosis. The infection is transmitted during a bite through saliva, which is injected into the human body.
Tick-borne encephalitis (spring-summer tick-borne meningoencephalitis) is a natural focal viral infection characterized by fever, intoxication and damage to the gray matter of the brain (encephalitis) and/or the membranes of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis and meningoencephalitis). The disease can lead to persistent neurological and psychiatric complications and even death of the patient.
Laaima disease (or tick-borne borreliosis) is an infectious disease with a large polymorphism of clinical manifestations. Early manifestations of the disease may include fever, headaches, fatigue and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. The outcome of the disease largely depends on the timeliness and correctness of the diagnosis and early initiation of treatment for the infection. Untimely and inadequate therapy can lead to the development of “late stage,” or chronic Lyme disease, which is difficult to treat and can result in disability or even death for the patient.
The tick does not attach itself immediately. It gets onto clothing from grass or low bushes (ticks do not fall from trees) and crawls upward, where it looks for a place to attach. As a rule, this is the back, head, armpits and groin.
- How to protect yourself?
- What to do if bitten?
- How to properly remove a tick?
Read the answers to these and other questions HERE >>
How to behave safely on VK?
Take care of personal information
Never send explicit photos, videos, or conduct personal correspondence with people you do not know personally. If someone meets you on VK and asks you to send something similar, this is not the pretty girl in the photo (or young man), but a scammer. He will then blackmail you by threatening to send your personal information to all your friends unless you pay the money.
Do not follow suspicious links, including those from friends
When you are sent a link, do not rush to click on it. Did you ask for it to be sent to you? Even if the link came from a friend, it may turn out that his page has been hacked, and these links are now being sent to everyone. If you click, your password will be stolen.
Often, from hacked pages, as if from friends, a request comes to vote via a link - by clicking on such a link, the victim enters his username and password, giving them to strangers, and then he can only blame himself:
Checklist for safety rules
- If someone is banging on your door or insistently demanding to open it, call 911.
- If you see an aggressive, dangerous-looking person in a public place, try to get as far away from him as possible.
- If you find yourself in a running crowd, do not stop, do not press yourself against the wall, try to turn out of the way.
- Do not touch suspicious objects - report them to a security officer.
- Listen to alerts and if there is any suspicious activity in a public place, leave the area.
- In the dark, do not walk along deserted alleys, try to walk in illuminated places.
- Don't be ashamed to run away if you feel in danger.
- Do not leave car doors open or place valuables where they can be easily grabbed.
- Once you have purchased protective equipment, learn how to use it and keep it ready when you go to an unsafe place.
All the safety rules discussed in this article are elementary and widely known. But only a few follow them. And it is everyone’s choice - to hope for chance or finally accept the fact that they can find out about any of us from sad news, and protect ourselves.
Something happened to Contact, I can’t log in, what should I do?
This situation occurs very often, the reasons may be different. Make sure you enter the password correctly. Don’t insist that everything is correct - take a deep breath and think: maybe you are entering Russian letters instead of English ones? Then switch your language. Maybe capital letters instead of small ones? Then turn off the Caps Lock button. If the password doesn’t work, no matter what options you try, see how to recover your VKontakte password.
If you still can’t log into Contact, and it doesn’t seem to be a password issue, read the article Can’t log into Contact - what to do? — it contains the main causes of such trouble and how to deal with them.
