Many of us have accounts all over the Internet; Ebay, Gmail, Yahoo, World of Warcraft, EVE Online and the list goes on. You can take just a few steps in making sure your online accounts don’t get hacked. With your personal information so readily available, hackers can easily hack almost any of your online accounts.

Securing your online accounts will save a time and hassles later on. Today hackers are using a method of social engineering to hack people’s online accounts. Remember those security questions you had to choose to recover a lost password? Most people choose the infamous “What is your mother’s maiden name?” question. If you actually answer these security questions truthfully you might as well publish the answers on the web. In fact, if you answer those questions truthfully what you don’t realize is that the answer is probably already on the web. This is one of the main ways hackers get access to people’s online accounts, they get the answers to their victim’s security questions. All it takes is a buddy on a social networking site such as MySpace or FaceBook or even a phone call from a fake IRS agent to get that information.

The Two Password Method

One way to really secure your online accounts is to use the two password method. Choosing a password of 7 to 15 characters that contains 2 uppercase, 2 lowercase and at least 2 numbers is more than sufficient for the normal password. As for the second password you come up with, when you get to the security question part use your second password no matter what question you decide to use. This not only tricks the hackers, but also makes it easy to remember on all your accounts.

1. Choose s secure password.
2. Use a fake answer on the security questions; use something cryptic like a password.