Tips for Protecting the Security of Your Apple ID

A knowledge base article entitled “Apple ID: Tips for protecting the security of your account” is now available on Apple’s Support area where the Mac maker outlines that keeping your sign-in credentials secure is vital in order to reduce the chances of these being compromised.

Apple has recently confirmed that rogue developers have been able to hack into App Store users’ accounts, stealing their information and making purchases using their credit cards. Around 400 store users had been reportedly affected at the time of the reporting. Apple urged customers to change their iTunes Store account passwords in order to stay on the safe side, and posted a job opening for "Fraud Prevention Specialis" which got snagged before Softpedia was even able to report the news. Now, the company provides the following piece of advice, explaining that “An Apple ID allows you to access multiple Apple resources such as Apple Discussions, iTunes, the Apple Online Store and much more. It's important to keep your sign in credentials secure to reduce the chances of your Apple ID and personal information from being compromised,” Apple explains. “The following tips will help to reduce the risk of theft or stolen identity,“ it points out.

Before listing them, Apple makes an additional note revealing that it takes precautions to safeguard customers’ personal information against loss, theft, and misuse, as well as against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. The Apple Online Store and iTunes Store are Apple online services that use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption on all web pages where personal information is collected, the Mac maker adds. “To help with these precautions, please follow these tips,” Cupertino says, and proceeds to offer post the valuable pieces of advice (reproduced below).

- Always sign out after you have finished purchasing from any Apple website or service.
- Avoid using the same password for multiple online accounts.
- Avoid using passwords that you have used in the past.
- Your Apple ID account password should be something only you know, and should not be shared with anyone, even family members.
- Choose a security question and answer that only you know the answer to, and that cannot be easily guessed by someone else.
- To increase the security of your account, it is best to choose a password that contains at least eight characters and uses a combination of numbers, letters and symbols (for example, @, $ or %).
- Changing your password frequently will help to reduce the chance of someone else gaining access to your Apple ID without your knowledge.You can change your password using iForgot.

Apple strongly advises those who suspect that someone knows their Apple ID username and password to change their password immediately. It also points out that using the same password for an email account is probably not a good idea.