CHECK UP ON YOUR PASSWORDS
The basics bear repeating: Passwords don’t belong on easy-to-find sticky notes, and they should be different for different sites, so one cracked password doesn’t allow access to everything from email to bank accounts to a Facebook profile. Strengthen weak, easily guessed passwords using a combination of letters, numbers, and characters that would make little sense to anyone else. (To make it easier to remember, try condensing something like “My grandson Max was born in June 2010” to “GsMxb610!”) Some experts even recommend using entire phrases — “passphrases” up to 64 characters long — where permitted. They can foil hackers as easily as nonsensical passwords, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say.