How Does the Security Score Work?
Here, we’re gonna break down how this ☝🏻 handy-dandy number works!
As you navigate your InstantAlly account, take note of what pieces of your data were exposed in the various breaches. Your security score encompasses the following compromised data:
- Plaintext, Repeated, Simple, and Encrypted Passwords
- Malware Breaches
- Usernames and Repeated Usernames
- Email/Phone Only Breaches
Each breach on your dashboard, and the particular piece of information exposed (from the above list), impacts your security score.
Now, we have designed the score to reflect how your level of data exposure compares to other InstantAlly users. So, while each breach, and any additional breaches that occur, will bring your score down, the specific credentials exposed will impact how much. Face it, some information is just more valuable for a fraudster.
We will advise where specifically you need to update or change your data. Every piece of breached data you see here plays a role in both your security score and how safe you are on the internet.
It’s much easier for a fraudster to use a breached plaintext password than an encrypted one. Things get a little worse for your security score (and internet safety) when we see that same plaintext password repeated across multiple site breaches. Change these passwords today!
Simple passwords (ones that don’t utilize numbers, symbols, or upper and lower case letters) will also impact your score. They are easy to guess for a fraudster and can be utilized in brute-force attacks. Read this post on how to write a better password and change these passwords today!
When an encrypted password is breached the risk isn’t as high immediately. It takes time for fraudsters to decrypt these passwords but inevitably it will put you at risk. This is also the case where you want to ensure that password isn’t being used across multiple sites.
You’ll want to pay a little extra attention to breaches where your username was also breached with your password. Usernames are most helpful to a fraudster when paired with your password. This is also fairly common in breaches. But it isn’t always feasible to change your username. So when you see this, it will impact your score and you’ll want to change your password.
We also use where the breaches occurred in calculating your score. Information from a malware attack is often more accurate than that obtained either from your device or a website breach.
