Recently a friend of mine had her hotmail account "hacked" someone managed to guess her password.

Whilst this might not seem so serious at first... now realise she had just started a new online business, and all the "welcome emails" from her web hosting account, domain name registration account, merchant facility and more were all saved in this email account until her new laptop arrived.

Now add to that the fact some of her closest friends started to receive "suggestive" if not downright rude emails (that were being sent in her name) I'm sure you will begin to realise what a security risk this really was and how distressing it can be to the victim.

You want to avoid such a security attack on your private and business life at all costs. It took many emails and password changes to "secure" her business again.  

This kind of hacking is called a 'dictionary attack'.

And it is one of the ways hackers discover passwords so they can break into your web banking, ebay, paypal or web hosting account.

In a dictionary attack, a program is used to try thousands of commonly used passwords at the login page under attack - until the right password needed to get in is discovered.

These attacks can be quite effective - especially if you have chosen a common or easily guessed password - like a child's or pet's name, a nickname, a favorite city or something similar.

To defend yourself against a dictionary attack, you'll want to change your important passwords to non guessable words, at least 8 characters long, which contain embedded numbers - ie sl56yT555$

Think about the passwords that prevent access to your most critical accounts. Would a dictionary attack reveal these passwords and allow a hacker into your web banking or paypal account?

If in doubt, change your important passwords today.