Streaming Audio Users Strongly Urged to Change Passwords

Now hear this! Music and audio streaming lovers may need to change their Pandora passwords. The company is sending out letters to some of its customers suggesting they change passwords to their accounts.

Pandora was not the victim of a breach, but user names and passwords for some users were found in a chunk of data that was stolen from another incident. In other words, password reuse is the problem here.

First, change your Pandora password just to be sure, even if you haven’t received the letter. There is no disclosed number of users who have been affected by this, but better safe than sorry. When you are doing so, following strong password guidelines:

• At least eight characters
• Non-dictionary words
• At least one special character
• Upper and lower case letters
• At least one number
• No personal or sensitive information

And of course, do not use a password that you have used on another site. This is being blamed for breaches more and more these days (Spotify, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn to name a few recent ones) and it’s easy to avoid it. Try using one password or phrase of at least six characters that serves as your base. Then add at least two additional characters that are different for each online account. You can use letters from the website or come up with your own strategy; just make sure it is very difficult to create a duplicate one using whatever method you design.

Within Pandora’s letter, it is stated that there is no evidence of any misuse of any Pandora accounts.  They recommend changing passwords, especially if they have not been updated recently.