I really should have knocked on wood when I wrote about passwords last week. I was practicing what I preached and knew that I was safe. But sure enough, my old Yahoo email account was just hijacked.

Your online security is only as good as your password. You probably make regular visits to dozens of sites that require passwords, so keeping track of them can be a chore. Dealing with so many passwords causes people to do some very unwise things. They might write them down, or store them on a computer file, or even use the same password for everything. All of these defeat the purpose of passwords and can result in compromising your important data.

A Router is a networking device that directs the flow of data along networks. Routers are connected to at least two separate networks, commonly two LANs (Local Area Network) or WANs (Wide Area Network) or, as in your home network, your LAN and the Internet. Routers are also known as gateways, located where two or more networks connect, and are the critical device that keeps data flowing between the networks.

Simply put, you are playing with fire if you aren’t using a firewall to protect your PC and home network from unauthorized access from outside your network.

The term “firewall” originally referred to a physical barricade against the potential spread of fire. In home computing terms, a firewall is a component of a computer or network that acts as a barrier between your home network or PC and the Internet. The firewall blocks unauthorized access while allowing authorized access to your systems. Firewalls can be hardware devices or based in software, both serving the same function.

Firewalls work by inspecting all traffic, both inbound and outbound, and deciding whether the traffic is denied or allowed passage based on a set of pre-established rules or policies. These rules and policies can work in one or more of several methods:

You know it can’t be good when Microsoft reveals that more than 10,000 Hotmail users may have had their private information compromised through recent Phishing scams.
Phishing is the act of illegally attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames and passwords by posing as an otherwise trustworthy entity through email or other electronic communication. [...]