What Steps Should You Take To Protect Yourself Online?

One of the best ways to protect yourself online is to choose a very strong password. Here are some tips to follow to help choose a crack/hack-proof password.

Do NOT use words in the dictionary.
Do NOT use your user name.
Do NOT use your real name.
Do NOT use your spouse/significant other's name.
Do NOT use anyone's name
Do NOT use anyone's, especially your own, birthday
Do NOT use any passwords that are used as demonstrations in this lens
Do NOT use a password that is a word/name followed by 1 (if the password requires a number)
Do NOT use a password that forms a coherent, decipherable word or phrase

DO use a password that has capitalized letters (AB)
DO use a password that has lowercase letters (ab)
DO use a password that has symbols (!@#$%)
DO use a password that has numbers (1234)
DO use a password that has at least 15 characters
DO use a different password for each account you have online (E-mail, Amazon, EBay, Squidoo, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.)
DO use a password that has a mixture of these, not one followed by another

Use a password like this: A1#q4B
Do NOT use a password like this: AB12!@ab

A somewhat useful tip to creating passwords is using state abbreviations like Or (Oregon) and Wa (Washington) to get a mix of capital and lowercase letters then mixing in symbols and numbers.

Are your strong passwords too long or complicated to remember from memory? There are plenty of applications and programs for you.

If you have an Android phone or an Iphone there are apps that will remember your passwords for you. These applications are password protected and cannot be accessed without the right one. Keeping your passwords secure and relieving the ease on yourself of having to remember all your passwords.

Another way to remember your passwords is to purchase a password notebook or a small electronic password organizer. Both of these products are safer than the Android/Iphone applications. The notebook is specially made to function as a password keeper, it has a special spot for every account detail you could think of. The electronic password keeper allows the passwords to be kept in a compact, secure space without the risk of a computer.

Another option for remembering your passwords, or rather, having your computer remember your passwords is Truecrypt. Truecrypt allows you to encrypt (encode) a certain part of your hard drive based on the size you select. In this space, you can put anything from pictures to videos to financial documents. Then, after you "dismount" the volume it cannot be opened again until the password is re-entered.

In my opinion, the best way to remember the password to the Truecrypt volume is by writing it on a piece of paper. This eliminates the possibility that someone may find the password on your computer and it is also safer to hide it on paper.

Once more, when you open this file to access your online accounts, it is safer to copy/paste your passwords than to re-type them in the password field out of the file.

Now that your online accounts are secured what are the further steps you should take to protect yourself online?

First, to help prevent viruses, switch from Internet Explorer to a different web browser such as Firefox,
Opera, or Google Chrome. All three of these browsers are safer and offer more security features than Internet Explorer has.

Next, do not download anything from websites unless you know where it is coming from and. If an automatic download appears when you open a webpage decline the download (it is also usually a good idea to avoid those sites all together). This also applies to emails requesting personal or financial information. These will often make a website look like your bank's or any other number of legitimate websites and ask for account information or credit card numbers, etc. Do not download any software or enter any information from emails you get unless you are sure it is coming from a legitimate source.

The last tip to give about protecting yourself online is getting a virus scanner. There are a number of good, free virus scanners, the best being Spybot Search and Destroy. There are also paid virus scanners that offer better, more complete protection than the free virus scanners can offer. The paid virus scanners are often offered at discounter prices online.