A new study says the West Palm Beach area is one of most vulnerable areas for a cyber attack in the United States.
The study was performed by Coronet, a Tel Aviv-based internet security company. For the study, the West Palm Beach area covered from Boca Raton to Okeechobee County.
“Not surprising Florida in general and not surprising even in South Florida, but to be that high on the list is always just another reminder that we need to pay more attention,” says Alan Crowetz, Channel 5’s internet security expert.
Las Vegas is the most vulnerable. West Palm Beach is in the top 10 with Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. West Palm Beach is No. 8.
“Retiring, old elderly population that hasn’t had the benefit of being around the internet their entire lives.
We have a lot of money in the area and the bad guys can sniff out money and we have a transient population,” said Crowetz.
Passwords are the number one thing you should protect, he says.
Use a different and unique password for every log in you have. To show us why, Crowetz typed his email address into the website HaveIBeenPwned.com.
The website tells if your email has been apart of a data breach. He’s been apart of five, including LinkedIn.
“So, who cares if they have my LinkedIn password? But if it’s the same password I use for my company email, which can then be used to get into a lot of things,” he said.
Crowetz said change passwords often, especially for important stuff like banking.
There’s another warning out this week from the FBI asking for everyone with an internet router this week to restart it, unplug it and plug it back in 10 seconds later to protect yourself against Russian malware.
For help in password protection, click here.