How not to get hacked

Make it hard to crack -- and change it often.

For starters, don't make it something easy to guess like "password" or "123456." Unbelievably, those are still among the most common passwords.

Your child's name or your birthday are easily found online -- don't use them. And PINs are easy puzzles for computers to solve.

There's a lot of debate about what makes the best password. But a long sentence -- especially a random phrase -- does the trick. That's especially true if it's easy to remember. No human will guess "TheLavaPunchedTheTornado." Add a symbol ($%^&*) and a few numbers for good measure. And it'll take longer for a computer to figure out than shorter, random gibberish like "M3talR0ck5."

Change your password every six months. Sound annoying? Losing control of your email or Facebook (FB) account is much worse.

NEXT: Be careful what you store