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Just like you use a lock and key to protect your personal items,
you use accounts and passwords to protect your electronic valuables:
Grades, bank information, e-mail, access to your social networking sites, and more.
How can you protect this information?
Welcome to Protecting Your Online Accounts - Simply Speaking.
There are a lot of things you can do to help protect your online accounts.
Here are a few ideas.
For every online site, you'll need an account and password.
Ideally, you want each password to be different.
That way, if someone discovers one of your passwords,
they won't be able to log into all of your accounts.
When you create or change a password,
make sure the new one contains upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols.
It should be at least eight characters long.
That makes the password stronger, meaning it's harder to guess.
Sometimes it's tempting to give your account and password information to a friend,
so they can log on as you and look something up.
Don't do it!
This is the number one cause of account problems.
And if something happens to your account,
you don't want to start suspecting your friends.
Many Web sites give you the option to save your account information.
Remember me?
While this is convenient, it's not a good idea.
If you do, anyone else who goes to that site on your computer can access your information.
When you're between classes,
you may want to stop into a space like a library to use a computer.
It's really convenient.
Just remember that when you're done, you should close all your windows
and log out of the computer before leaving.
Finally, don't keep lists of accounts, passwords, and other information
like your social security number or credit card numbers on your computer.
If you lose your computer, or if it's stolen,
you don't want someone to be able to take your electronic information
and run the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.
With only a few key elements of your identity, the bad guys can act as imposters.
Keep in mind that other devices, like phones and portable drives
can also contain personal information, so the same rules apply.
If a laptop, phone, portable drive, or other device is lost or stolen, contact the local police.
If you're a Penn State student or work for Penn State,
you should also contact the ITS Security Operations and Services Unit: security@psu.edu.
The quicker they know, the better the chance you'll have of recovering
your lost item and protecting your online accounts.
This has been Protecting Your Online Accounts - Simply Speaking.
To get more information about this topic,
visit the Take Control campaign Web site at its.psu.edu/takecontrol.
This video was produced by Penn State University
and is available for use under Creative Commons license.