The chances are good that you are NOT being ‘hacked”. Much more likely you were using a weak password and / or secret question and SOMEONE YOU KNOW simply took an educated guess or saw you typing your password.

Change all your passwords to a strong ones . A strong password MUST have at least 10 characters, using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. Do not use any real words, especially easy-to-guess words like love, password, or the name of your husband! Do not use your cat’s name. Do not use the nane “Jonas Bros”, or whatever their talentless name is.

Your secret question and answer must be something truly secret even if you must make up a nonsense answer. Too many people know the name of your first school or the name of your pet!

Never tell anybody, even your best friend, what your password is. Friends don’t last forever. Todays “friend” can be tomorrows enemy! “Friends” often blab passwords to their friends.

Never type your password when someone is looking over your shoulder. Would you enter your PIN # into an ATM with somebody watching?

And never write your password down and use a “Stick-It” to attach it on your monitor. Don’t laugh, people do this all the time!

Use different passwords for each service you use. Your password to start your computer must be different from your MySpace password which should be different from your Yahoo password which must be different from your e-bay password etc. Do NOT use the same password for everything. And change them all every few months.