Ask any security expert and they'll tell you their system is perfect, it's the people using it that are the weakest link (oops, I've turned into Anne Robinson). Guns are also safe, it's the idiots that go around pulling triggers that are dangerous.

So, hands up if you have a password which is the name of one of your children, or one of your pets? Maybe it's a football team? Maybe it's a brand of alcohol, or anti-depressant? Maybe it's just the name of an object that was near your computer at the time, like "pencil"?

Okay, now hands up if you use the same password on more than one system? Hands up if you can't remember your passwords, so you write your passwords down? When was the last time you changed your password?

If any of that made you feel a little nervous, it should. Some "hacking" is done by strangers just for the hell of it, but mostly it's done by someone you know because you've upset them somehow.

An ex-lover might well know your passwords anyway (in which case change them like changing the locks to your house!). But even someone who's never met you could probably have a look at your homepage and learn enough about you to try a few obvious guesses. "Oh look, they like X-files, let's try TRUSTNO1".

And if you do use the same password for everything, watch the whole lot slip from your fingertips - your Feesch profile, your e-mail account, your MSN account, your ebay and paypal, maybe even your bank details!

So here's some simple practical advice from one who hears about the horror of hacking:

1. Try not to use the same password for everything. You may develop a system, but try to make sure that system isn't too predictable otherwise you won't achieve much.
2. You want something RANDOM. The best passwords combine two totally unrelated words, eg "featherpopcorn" (please don't use that example!). You could use the nickname generator for ideas (that creates about 5 million different possibilities which should be plenty!).

3. Change your passwords regularly, especially if you have knowingly upset someone, after a breakup in particular.

Follow those three simple rules and you'll be pretty damn safe I'd say. You can never be too safe of course, but you can certainly be too careless.