As you are well aware there has been an active person or group of people trying to get our account information from us here on DA. What they want this for is hard to tell, but more than likely they are looking for credit card information or personal information that they can use to exploit our wonderful users here on DA.

So here are a couple of general habits you should get yourself to use on a regular basis to protect this and other accounts you may have.

#1: Change your password on a regular basis.

This is the most important thing you can do to protect your account. Get into the habit of changing your password on a regular basis. It is easy to do and it can save you a lot of heartache in the long run. I normally change my passwords every six months.

How to keep track of them can be a bit challenging but there are some low cost programs from trusted companies to help you track these that are secure.

Coffecup software's Lockbox is one that tracks your passwords and keeps them secure as well as generates them for you. [link]

Otherwise a keep them in a text file that you place into a secure file using some form of encryption like True crypt, which is a free encryption program that is very secure.

Never write them down on a note and leave it lying about the place. Also never share your password with anyone, ever. Many scams that are out there send you messages that look like they are from your friends requesting passwords or leading you to a false log in page. As you know by now never use these links. If you are in doubt log off the site and re log on yourself by going there from your own browser using the address you type in yourself. Remember site administrators never need to know your password for any reason (they can simply reset the password should they ever need to get into it. They won't without good reason though because they are much too busy running the site to personally monitor your pages).

I would also recommend not using the remember user name and password features that are are prevalent in most browser software.

When generating your new passwords never use things that are common knowledge about yourself. This means no birthdays, pets names, children's names, hometowns, school names, nicknames, etc. Most hackers out there are liars and thieves, but they are usually good at getting information on their victims.

#2: Money and sites

I never use a credit card on these web sites. Credit cards do offer protection against your number getting stolen but it can take you a while to prove to the credit card company that you are really a victim and meanwhile your card is going to be inactive.

I use a nice service like paypal as a gateway for payments. They are secure, and the transaction has to be initiated by you and approved by you logging on with your personal password (that you will be changing every six months or so). Also you can monitor the transactions that have been processed from a nice page that lists them so you can have any suspicious ones investigated. These services have powerful investigators and lawyers so you don't have to hire your own.

Is this fool proof, well nothing is really fool proof but if you apply the steps from item #1 to this you will be in much better shape that if you do not.

For maximum security you can stop going on the web and live in a cave on the side of a mountain, then no one could get your information. But no one wants to live like this, and no one would then want your information anyways.

Just remember to use good common sense and give no one your passwords, and you should be fine. Also keep abreast of security topics by looking at some technical journals online from various trusted computer magazines or companies. These journals can be a bit dry at times but they will let you know if there are any things to be wary of here in the wilds of the net. Cnet is good [link] , but there are many others as well. Have fun and stay safe here on DA.