If you use the same user ID and password at multiple Web sites, you're could be in a heap o'trouble.

If you use the same user ID and password at multiple Web sites, you're could be in a heap o'trouble. Recently, Chinese cyber-thieves cracked a poorly secured Web site and lifted my user name and password.  In what I've learned is a common practice, they then hit major financial sites to see if I had been foolish enough to use the same user name and password with any of them.  Of course, probably like you, I have used the same password at scores of sites.  I learned of the scam when PayPal called me about a string of suspicious purchases in Germany made from my account.  So I spent one frantic afternoon getting ahead of the thieves by changing my password at all sites linked to my finances.  The passwords I generated from a random password generator are inscrutable and a terrible pain to type. But that's a small price to pay to protect the 60% of my assets that weren't lost to the market crash.  Please, take heed.