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Last Saturday’s POA meeting saw the reelection of board members Steve Nash and Dottie Stueckroth. Mr. Nash received 291 voted, Ms. Stueckroth received 282 and the third candidate, John Gillen received 202 votes. Mr. Gillen did receive praise from the board for his willingness to serve his community, even though his effort this time did not work out for him.
Household Waste Event
As a further reminder, this Saturday, October 15, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Burnet County is sponsoring a household hazardous waste collection event. Disposal items eligible to bring to the event include: batteries, used motor oil, latex and oil-based paint, antifreeze, tires (w/o rims), household cleaners, gasoline, TV sets (no consoles), and scrap metal. What is ineligible to take: tires with rims, containers larger than 5 gallons, medical items, mowers, appliances, console TVs, ordinary trash, and mattresses.
Password Protection
In last week’s newsletter, there were suggestions that, if followed, would keep your personal records and financial accounts more secure. We talked about such things as never open an email attachment from someone you do not know. Use strong passwords. And use two step authentication where available. While we may all agree that these are good ideas, it is so much easier to use simple passwords and use the same ones for all sites so that there are not so many to keep up with.
Hacking & Identity Theft
If you use weak passwords that are easily guessed and reuse them on several different websites, you are not alone. But you are also making yourself a target for hacking and identity theft. If you use the same password for your email, bank, investments, social media, and healthcare accounts, an identity thief who found your login information would be able to access all kinds of sensitive information with a single username and password. The internet browsers that we commonly use all have a feature called password manager that stores passwords. This enables users to use strong passwords that are stored in an encrypted data base that is extremely difficult to hack into.
Password Manager
So, you can generate complex passwords that you do not have to remember if you elect to use a password manager. A password manager works by storing the login information for websites you have accounts with, and helps you automatically log in.
In order to access the stored passwords, they require that you have a master password—one that you must remember. Once you log into your password manager, you have access to the saved login information.
Browser Insight
Whether you use Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Firefox, there is a password manager, and your passwords are currently stored there. You may have to do a little research to get comfortable with what the manager can and cannot do. There is enough variation among the browsers that it would be difficult to wade through all of them in this space.