You can’t escape it. Everyone’s out to get you. From waking up to read an email that says your bank account has been compromised and the login disabled, to visiting to your website, blog or facebook account only to discover it says it has been hacked, the world isn’t a always a friendly place. Sometimes it’s fairly easy to clean up the mess and other times the problem can haunt you for weeks, months or even years. Unfortunately, you may be just a random victim–that’s often the case. While there’s often absolutely nothing you could have done to avoid the infiltration, you still can help your personal cause by creating smarter passwords.

Tips for better passwords:

1. Don’t use words found in the dictionary
2. Use words 8 – 10 characters long
3. Don’t use personal information
4. Don’t use repeating characters
5. Use characters, letters and numbers
6. Use word fragmnets interspersed with characters
7. use a unique password for each account
8. Change passwords frequently

Passwords used most frequently – don’t use these!

• cali123
• password
• california1
• 123456
• abc123
• christmas
• monkey
• 1234567
• baseball
• dragon
• 111111
• iloveyou
• master
• passwOrd
• 123123
• shadow
• 654321
• superman
• football