It seems like nowadays it’s impossible to avoid being hacked if someone really wants to get their hands on your personal info.  But the idea that you can make it hard enough so they skip over you and move on to some other sucker is very appealing. We were able to get some tips from an actual hacker about things we’re doing online that put us at rick of being hacked. Here are four big ones:

1.  You don’t change your password regularly. We’ve all heard it a million times, but it’s THAT important.  If you’ve been using the same password for a number of years, change it.  Especially if you use the same one across multiple websites and logins.

2.  You post a picture of your house key.  Yay! You’re a homeowner! That comes with some celebrating, including posting a picture of your house key on Facebook! Well, hackers can use that photo to make a copy of your key and break in.  And if the photo is geo-tagged (don’t ask us!), they can find out exactly where you live.

3.  Your teenager is posts a photo of their new driver’s license.  Yes, it happens all the time.  They can’t help it, they’re SO excited!  But they won’t be when a hacker uses that picture to steal their identity.

4.  You don’t look at the background of a photo before you post it.  We can’t help it, we’re mostly checking ourselves out when we take a selfie! Big smile? Check.  No double chin? Check.  What we usually don’t do is make sure there’s nothing in the background that could hurt us online. Say you take a selfie at your desk, but you totally forget about that little sticky note on your bulletin board in the background with all your passwords on it. Well, a hacker won’t forget.  They check for that stuff! While we’re at it, be careful about other things laying around your desk things like paychecks, and what’s on your computer screen.