What You Don't Know About Passwords Can Hurt You

This month I read a very interesting article in Macworld Magazine. After reading this article, I am changing some of my own password habits. 

Here is an exerpt from the article by Joe Kissell that alarmed me:

"Suppose you signed up for a LinkedIn account, and you used the same password you previously chose for your Gmail account. Then, in June, you were one of the unlucky people whose LinkedIn password was leaked. An enterprising hacker who knew your LinkedIn password could have easily tried it with other popular services, so getting access to your Gmail account would suddenly be trivial. That’s a problem not just because someone could read or delete your email, but because you might use your Gmail address to access or reset other passwords. If the hacker clicked the “forgot password” link on another site, he could then check your email to get access to accounts that use other passwords. Even reusing a single password in two places could, in this way, cause cascading problems."

I know enough, and I think we all do, to make a more complicated password and write it down somewhere. But then, I tend to use the same password, or a variation of the same password for all of my accounts. After reading this article, I knew I had to make some changes. So, how much do I have to change? 
A secure password is most important on your email, your bank account and any other financial information. As I read in this article, if someone gets into your email account, they can get into other accounts. 

I hope you will take the time to research this for yourself and change what you need to change.