According to a research done by Information Week on an analysis of 28,000 passwords from a popular website, 16% of users using name such as their own name, spouse’s name or children’s name, 14% use like “1234” or “123456”, 4% uses “password” or “password1”. Some other common passwords include “qwert” (English keyboard letters below the numeric keys), popular tv show stars such as hannah or pokemon, and iloveu. Most of the users are using these kinds of passwords because they are familiar with all these words and it is easy to remember. However, a simple password may harm decline the security. Passwords are the keys use to access personal information that have stored on computer and in online accounts. If criminals or hackers steal this information, they can use your name to open new credit card accounts, steal your money in bank account, apply for a mortgage, or pose as you in online transactions for making money purposes. Therefore, create and use strong passwords are very important for everyone.

First of all, make the passwords lengthy. Each character that adds to the password increases the protection that it provides many times over. The passwords should be 8 or more characters in length. The ideal and stronger length of the passwords is 14 or more characters. In order to remain the secure, users can combine letters, numbers, and symbols in the passwords. The greater variety of characters in the password increases the hardness to guess. Nowadays, many systems support the use of space bar in passwords, so user can create a pass phrase made of many words. A pass phrase is longer and harder to guess as well as easier to remember than a simple password. Besides that, users are suggested to change passwords regularly to increase the security of information.

To avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords, users should avoid sequences or repeated characters "12345678," "222222," "abcdefg," or adjacent letters on your keyboard such as “qwert” that do not help make secure passwords. Besides that, do not using only look-alike substitutions of numbers or symbols such as 1 as I and @ as a which is easy guessed by criminals. Users have to avoid their login name contains any part of their name, birthday, social security number, or any similar information. Moreover, users should not use dictionary words in any language to create their passwords. Criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly guess passwords that are based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions. Users are advice to use more than one password everywhere and avoid using online storage to store the passwords.

What is phishing?

Phishing is pronounced like 'fishing' but please not be confused with fishing. Phishing is a type of social engineering attack in an attempt to trick individuals to reveal their sensitive information. It scams users by sending an e-mail or instant messaging with an established legitimate enterprise that has been misrepresented.

The common scenario is that the e-mail will direct the users to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, and bank account numbers that the legitimate organization already has. Customers of banks and online payment services are usually the common targets.

There are many methods of phishing. The common form is to make a link in an e-mail that appears to belong to the spoofed organization such as the use of subdomains. For example, the URL, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine, appears to take user to an article entitled “Genuine”, in fact it will take the user to the article entitled “Deception” when clicked on it.

Another form of phishing is the use of subjects lines worded to arouse anxiety. For example, the subject “to restore access to your bank account …” in an e-mail will usually get instant attention and most people will fall into the trick by clicking to read what happened. Another example of phishing is requiring users to update their information or change their passwords.

Nowadays, people mostly keep their personal data or information in their computers because it is easy to manage. However, there are some users who abuse the convenient and try to steal others personal information especially those financial data in the computers. Hence, users should have some knowledge about how to protect their personal information and financial data.

Below are some tips to safeguard personal and financial data:
· Use passwords and encrypt sensitive files
Create passwords to prevent unauthorized user to access your personal data in the computer. You should create password which is not easy to be guess. Besides that, you may encrypt files to avoid other users to read your data although they can physically access it. But, if you forget your passwords and passphrases which is use to protect your data, your data will be miss.

· Use and maintain anti-virus software and firewall
Install an anti-virus and a firewall to prevent viruses such as Trojan horses which may steal or modify your data in the computer. Always update your anti-virus to ensure your computer has proper protection.

· Often scan your computer for spyware
Always scan your computer for spyware as it may be hidden in some software programs. Hackers will use spyware to access your data.

· Do not access financial information in public
It is better to use your own computer to access financial information. Avoid accessing financial information in the public because we do not know how well their firewalls are.

· Do not open mystery attachments
Viruses can be sent through any attachments in mails. Thus, do not open any mystery attachments or click on a link that connects you by an unknown party.

· Review your monthly statements
You may discover any possible fraudulent charges when u always assesses your monthly statements. Some charges or services which are no longer necessary or redundant may also misstated in your financial statement.