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Now that more individuals than ever are completing most of their work online, more personally identifiable data is being communicated over the Web. Most websites allow users to create an account, or multiple accounts, that collect information that makes them easily identifiable. Due to the fact that users generally us many websites that allow multiple profiles, they will often use the same user name and password for each of them.

People who are making money off of individuals surfing the web, know and leverage the daily habits that are typically found among everyday users. These cyber criminals know that most individuals use the login information for both their user name and password. By decoding and obtaining access to a single web site, these criminals have what they need to access many more personal accounts. This is easily completed by targeting web sites that are much less secure and simply leveraging the information acquired among more complicated web sites. This makes stealing your identity quite easy for those with insight into your online habits. One example is a membership site or social media site which is somewhat less secure than your online banking, can be used to acquire credentials. Online criminals have techniques to decipher passwords to accounts that do not have proper security. If you’re using the same information for each site you log into, you can understand why these online criminals can gain access to your most protected accounts.

Although web browsers are at risk for a variety of scams, one of the most common is a phishing scam. These types of scams are effective when you receive an email of a well know site asking you to log in to your account. Rather than the web site creating the email, it is being sent by an online criminal who will use his software to track your keystrokes when you login to your account. This is done without your knowledge but records your actions, allowing a third party to access the site at a later time based on the information you provided without knowing it.

There are a number of risks when entering personal information one the web. The key is to protect yourself against the risks in a way that is both effective and easy to manage. Fortunately there are many ways to protect yourself form online predators. The first and best way to do so is by using a unique log for each and every website that requires your credentials. By altering your log in credentials, you significantly minimize any attempt to expose your user name or password on other accounts. This may be a difficult habit to create for yourself, but using unique passwords or credential sets are one of the most effective forms of online protection you can have. Track your passwords offline to keep them safe and avoid exposure from others who want to access your accounts.

Once you’ve gotten on board with unique passwords and credentials, another way to protect yourself is by using passwords that are difficult to decode. Many Internet browsers may take the first step of creating unique information but use common words or phrases in the form of a password that can often times be guessed or determined according to public information. Online criminals may have a variety of information that gives them password clues. Use a combination of factors including capital letters, lower case letters and numbers with each password.

Software giant Microsoft recommends using a sentence-based method for creating a complex password that is difficult to. The idea is to think of a maximum 10-word sentence that says something meaningful and will not be too difficult to remember. Then, use the first letter of each word in the sentence to develop an acronym to use as the 10-character password. Users can then commit the sentence to memory, or write it down near their PC, and quickly remember the password as the first letter of each word. Capitalizing certain letters makes a password even more difficult to decode, as almost every modern account requires case-sensitive passwords. Users can also integrate numbers or changes to punctuation as an additional layer of security.

Thinking about the need for multiple passwords for each of your online accounts can be somewhat overwhelming but don’t think of it as a challenge. Consider the time, effort, and amount of money it may cost to recover from stolen information or identity theft. These costs can be significant. By simply changing some online habits, you can generate all of the online precautions you’ll need.

Ascentive, creators of PC Speed Scan was founded in 1998 and develops easy-to-use software for consumers and businesses that resolve every day PC problems including maintenance, optimization, and security. Pc speedscan pro and other Ascentive products have been used by over 1,000,000 people and are now available in seven languages.