A Privacy Lesson, Courtesy of Zuckerberg [View all]

Mark Zuckerberg created a stir over an Instagram post this summer of him at his desk. If you look closely, you’ll see tape covering the Facebook CEO’s laptop camera and microphone jack. Does he know something we don’t? Well, yes.

Hackers are virtually (pun intended) everywhere. Mr. Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts were hacked in early June, before the photo was taken. The Democratic National Committee had 20,000 emails released on WikiLeaks right before the party’s July convention. The Federal Reserve recently admitted it’s had more than 50 cyberbreaches over the past five years. In August the National Security Agency, which says its role is to “lead the U.S. Government in cryptology” got, you guessed it, hacked.

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So, is privacy dead? Not really. Any financial company that gets hacked is not doing its job and you should drop it. Security tools are getting better though more expensive. While they are a burden on customers and employees—extra time and passwords to remember—it’s better than losing money or having your dirty laundry aired. Ask Sony.

Don’t trust institutions—you have to protect yourself. Encrypt everything. A phone with fingerprint access is a must. Keep valuable information offline—“air gap” by unplugging the Ethernet cable. Use multifactor or two-step authentication. With two-step, when you log in to your email from a new device, you’re asked for a six-digit code that gets texted to your phone. Unless they have your phone, no one in China or Estonia is going to steal your email, even if they know your password. Mine is Bosco.

OK, I probably shouldn’t have told you that. Remember the CEO of LifeLock who shared his Social Security number in 2007, claiming he couldn’t be hacked? It wasn’t long before someone successfully took out a loan in his name. Now where is that duct tape for my laptop?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-privacy-lesson-courtesy-of-zuckerberg-1473808798