how to HACK-PROOF email accounts / passwords

With the Sarah Palin email hacking controversy still hot in the news, the question of how to hack-proof or hack proofing one's email account password (or any secure account for that matter) is again at the forefront. While many of us claim to already know how to do this, it is still important to refresh our memory on the more effective means to avoid suffering a fate similar to Sarah Palin's. I'm sure she claims to know about hack proofing too but look what happened to her. He he. Most of us may not be as lucrative a target for hackers as the VP candidate but there are scoundrels out there who will stop at nothing to infiltrate one's privacy in the hopes of getting vital information to be used in their scamming activities.

The most important thing to remember is to get a SECURE PASSWORD. Now, if you're one of those individuals who think that using their birthday, phone number, address, name or middle
name as passwords is secure, go shoot yourself read on because those are the lamest choices you can make. Passwords should not contain information that others can easily associate with you.

Some services require a one word password while others accept sentences or phrases. Well, for the one-word passwords, you can still use phrases, just remove the spaces. Combine words that you can easily remember like a description of your favorite childhood memory, a favorite place to go to or any significant event in your life - the boy or girl who first dumped you, perhaps? He he. To make it more secure, capitalize some of the letters so that hackers will have a hard time cracking your code. You can even insert numbers into the code for added security. Others even put dots, ampersands or other special characters. And here's another tip: if your speak a second language, inserting some of them into your password would be even better!

Speculations are rife that Sarah Palin's password was compromised through the security question email services ask to reset a lost or forgotten password. A quick check at Yahoo's security questions revealed the following:

Where did you meet your spouse?
What was the name of your first school?
Who was your childhood hero?
What is your favorite pastime?
What is your favorite sports team?
What is your father's middle name?
What was your high school mascot?
What was your first car of bike?
What is your pet's name?
Looking at these, one can easily see that these aren't as secure as they claim to be since many people would know or can easily find out the answers to them, just like in Sarah Palin's case. But the trick here is in your choice of answer. For example, a pet's name. Don't write your real pet's name. Invent one! How about the name of your lousy college professor, the worst restaurant you ever went to, or your mother-in-law! Ha ha. Now, who can guess that? If you put your pet's real name, that would have been easier to guess. In addition, you can also insert characters and numbers, and capitalize just like in the password for added security.

Another thing to remember is to have different passwords for the different levels of security your account has. Don't use just one password for your email, online banking transactions, paypal and membership to social sites. That is tantamount to online suicide! Once one password is compromised, it's goodbye to your whole online identity (and finances). If this is what you have been doing remedy the situation at once. Anything that involves your finances should have the most secure password you can think of, while the social sites, in my opinion, hold the lowest security ranking. I know having many passwords is quite hard to do for it entails a lot more data to remember, but it is absolutely necessary.


And one last thing. The main key to all of this is to remember your password details. No matter how secure your password is, if you forget it you're dead! He he. I have mine stuffed securely somewhere where others cannot find it. And even if they do, they won't be able to recognize it. You may have to think of ways to do the same just to be on the safe side, when memory fails.

So what are you waiting for? start thinking of a more secure password and change the lame ones you have right now. Good luck!

BTW, while on a search for the keywords how to hack proof in preparartion for this post, I was surprised to find that there are more entries on the subject of how to hack. That's how serious our problem is.


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