We all have so many different accounts in today's online world. There are so many good things made available to us because of our technology but there are also many hidden dangers. The number of cyber attacks/identity theft/financial loss incidents etc grows daily so one may wonder how you can protect yourself from this kind of threat. Do you use the same password on a number of different accounts? The same userid? Many hackers are successful because they use your computer habits to achieve their goals (financial gain at your expense). You may think you have nothing to loose by using the same userid and/or password on multiple accounts but each site offers different levels of security and some really offer none. The way it works is a hacker will breach the security of a less secure website and get user's account information. They then start targeting these users to see if they can find other accounts (online banking/investment accounts, social networking sites, etc) with the same account userid and passwords. Sounds pretty simple right? Well, in fact it is because many users are basically lazy and do not take steps to keep their account's protected which places their information at risk. What are some simple steps you can take to help protect yourself and make the hackers job more challenging?

- do not use the same password on multiple accounts

- change your passwords often

- don't use passwords that can be easily guessed (sports teams, spouse/children’s names, etc)

- use complex passwords with a combination of upper case, lower case, numbers, special characters

- develop a password system that works for you but still meets the criteria mentioned above for complex passwords

- don't cache your passwords in your browser

- don't write your passwords down

- if you do write your passwords down then don't keep them next to your computer

- Use technology to your advantage; if you keep your passwords on your computer then keep them in an encrypted folder and password protect the file

- don't use hotel, library or any other public computers to access your accounts...just browse on public computers. If you absolutely must use a public computer to access an account the you definitely should ensure you clear the internet history before you end your session or the next user may be in your account before you can count to three.

These are only a few of the steps you can take but they may help keep your identity and money safer. I really don't believe there is any way to stay totally safe but we should do everything we can to make getting our information harder.