Using words that appear in a dictionary - even multiple words strung together, like 'redapple' - severely reduces the efficacy of your password. A strong password will use a mix of alphanumeric characters with both upper and lowercase letters, and preferably no dictionary words.

The first is one of the most common passwords on the planet, and the second contains nothing but plain text characters. Which do you think is better, 'monalisa' or 'redapple'? The truth is, they both suck. you get the idea.Īvoid using simple passwords that are easy to guess. That means your PayPal password should be different from your First National Bank password, which is different from your Chase credit card password, which is different from. At a minimum, use a different password for each of your banking institutions than you do for Gmail, social networking sites, and other logins. Are you using the same password for multiple websites? Simply put, stop doing it. That last one is something even the most savvy PC users are sometimes guilty of being lax about.

You know the drill - don't click on links in email (manually type the URL into your browser), avoid opening unexpected email attachments, and be smart with your passwords. 1 ally against unnecessarily falling prey to a hacker trap. Look, there's no rocket science involved with security. You can, however, ensure that you're doing your part to mitigate the fallout from these types of incidents and avoid putting yourself in precarious situations. That part's up to the banks and the companies you choose to conduct business with. Unfortunately, these things happen, and sadly there's not much you can do to prevent data breaches from occurring. That's not such a big deal if you're using a different password for your banking institution than your LinkedIn profile (you are, right?) - not unless you're worried some jackhole is going to muck with your online resume, or alter your eHarmony profile to say you only like long, nude walks on the beach, and even then, there's a chance it could work out for the better. This past month alone has seen the likes of LinkedIn, Last.fm, and eHarmony all succumb to major security breaches in which millions of hashed user passwords were posted to a Russian website for anyone to try and crack. It's a dangerous world on the web, and it's getting more treacherous by the day.

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