Karin's Adventures

They knew since December, but decided to tell us today. Investigations into a huge botnet turned up 16 million stolen email addresses, complete with passwords, half of them ending in .de - Germany.

I found out that my oldest email address, which I have been using for almost everything in the past 15 years, is one of them. I had almost expected that, given my level of exposure online, and I wasn't really concerned about any consequences, because I have been doing enough to protect my computers, and online accounts, and identities.  

Just in case you want to know what I'd recommend for your protection - and peace of mind:

• For your online activities use an email address that does not contain your name
• Use a unique, different password for every online account
• Create complex passwords, using a system that is easy for you to remember
• Change your passwords for everything every three months, or even more often
• Keep your virus protection and firewall on all your computers up to date.
• Scan all your computers for malware with multiple, different programs a least monthly
• Turn all your computers off when you are not using them