If you’ve changed your smoke detector batteries more recently than you’ve changed your passwords, then you should think about changing some of them now.

If you can change passwords more often, great. But I realize that some of us have upwards of 25 passwords to manage on a regular basis (click HERE). It’s not fun having to change them all. But with the number of security breaches at websites these days, it’s only a matter of time until somebody gets one of your passwords. And if you use the same password across all your accounts, hackers will have a pretty easy time assuming your identity at places like eBay, PayPal, Amazon, etc.

The first step is to change any passwords for important accounts like online banking and government tax filing, etc. If you can change these more often, and keep the passwords for these sites unique and strong, it will be less likely that you’ll have yours guessed.

Passwords for sites you only use for news, online favorites or subscriptions aren’t usually as important. So, if these aren’t as strong, aren’t unique, and aren’tchanged as often, then it won’t be as big a problem for you if one of them gets stolen.

Stay tuned to the Security Views blog for upcoming news about managing passwords. Click HERE to see more articles about passwords.