Also, digital communications can be intercepted and analyzed more rapidly and more cheaply than analog phone conversations. The greatest danger, as I see it, is that someone will ask you for information, and you will provide it before you consider the risks. Use the same precautions you use on the telephone. Some web sites work with your browser to encrypt sensitive information, but that is protection against interception, not against misuse or loss of your data by the person on the other end. Use long passwords Possibly the second greatest mistake is to use short passwords for your accounts.
Some people can use a single guessed password to compromise an entire network.
Use as many characters as the system allows. Six is an absolute minimum. Don't use your user-id or your birthdate. An automated attack can try every one of those in a few seconds. Mix in upper-case letters and punctuation if the system allows it.