How Not To End Up Like Sarah Palin’s E-mail Account

Contributing editor and tech guru extraordinaire Nicholas Deleon weighs in on how NOT to be a dumbass and get your email hacked.
You’ve all by now heard what happened to Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. And if you haven’t, the gist: some evil “hackers” broke into her Yahoo! e-mail account, revealing, frankly, nothing too personal. But the mainstream media, which doesn’t know the difference between a toaster and a hacker, is now claiming that the sky is falling.
In the interest of education, here’s a few steps you can take to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of similar circumstances.

1. Don’t be an ass. Simple as pie. Don’t make your e-mail address and password the same. The password for coolguy12@yahoo.com should never be coolguy12. Don’t try to be clever and reverse it, either, like 21coolguy.
2. Don’t leave your password on a sticky note on your desk. Wandering eyes—eyes tend to wander, you know—can easily spot it at your cubicle while you’re at the taco truck.
3. Try not to use the “lost your password” feature. For example, when Yahoo! and whoever ask you to put in your first pet’s name—it’s Fluffy, isn’t it?—just put nonsense. All it takes is someone who knows your e-mail address and a little bit of work on their part—hey, Bob, what was your first pet’s name?—and your e-mail is out in the open.
So yeah, just a few ideas to keep your extracurricular activities as private as possible.
Photo from The Office of the Governor