Choose your passwords carefully. Your passwords should be easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. Don't use names, dates, vehicle registration numbers, especially those of your loved ones. Always remember, your username and password is your online identity.

Learn to choose good passwords here.

Unfortunately, most people use passwords that contain personal information such as:

* Husband's / Wife's / Lover's name
* Child's name
* Pet's name
* Young relatives' (such as niece / nephew / grandchild etc.) name
* Birthday of any of the above
* Anniversaries of any of the above
* Vehicle registration numbers

Such passwords are easily discovered because they are easily guessable. They are 'guessed' using 'Social Engineering', which is a method of identifying passwords based on your personal information. Alternately, such passwords can also be discovered using 'Brute Force', which is a method of discovering passwords by using combinations of items that can be found in a 'dictionary'.
Your passwords should:

1. Always be a mixture of alphabet and numbers.
2. Should preferably contain symbols where permitted.
3. Never contain names / dates / numbers that can be linked to you or your loved ones.
4. Never contain your Credit Card / Bank Account numbers / passwords.
5. Never be shared with anyone, especially with those you do not know personally.
6. Always be regularly changed depending on how sensitive the account is.
7. Should preferably be different for different accounts.
8. Never be written down on paper / text files / documents on your computer.

In the rare event that you need to share your password with someone you trust deeply, you should still take the following precautions:

1. Set a temporary password that is simple, and very different from the password associated with the account.
2. Share this temporary password.
3. Keep track of when the person you shared the password with has completed the activity for which the password was shared.
4. Change your password immediately after.

Even if you trust someone very much, you never know if their computer is infected, or if they have taken all precautions to ensure the safety of your account. Remember, sharing your password can be as dangerous as signing a blank check (cheque) and handing it over.