Too many people believe that they are secure just because they have a piece of software installed that said "Protects from viruses and hackers" on the back or the box. The problem here is, that most of the real cyber-security threats today do not exploit computer code, but rather exploit a user's lack of knowledge. It is these social engineering threats that one must be aware of. Scams in the form of phishing emails are the most prominent example of this. Do not click links in emails from people you don't know. Do not click on those "videos" that a "friend" posts on your Facebook wall asking you to download a special video player. I think you get the idea. When in doubt, do not click.
Another extremely dangerous threat and all-too-common threat to the user, is the user itself. Too many times do people use the same password for every website that they create an account at, and too often is it some easily guessable piece of information, such as a pet's name, phone number, or birthday. Creating good strong passwords is an excellent place to start for anyone looking to increase security. For example, anyone who has had their Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, or email accounts hacked, probably used a poor password made of readily available personal information. A good rule of thumb is that any password should be at least eight characters long, and should contain at least one number, punctuation and uppercase letter. Skimping on password strength is the easiest and most surefire way to get yourself "hacked."
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