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Good password habits can keep your email account safe

Following the recent compromising of US Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's email account; online security experts are warning users to review their password habits.

Google's Gmail, Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo's Mail are said not be immune to trickery from cyber crooks and could easily give up passwords, according to TechWorld.

The webmail services all rely on automated password reset programmes which can reportedly be compromised by simply knowing a user name and the answer to one security question.

According to PC World, the "security questions" most of the webmail servers offer such as Yahoo! Mail's "What was your high school mascot?" can easily be cracked by hackers simply finding out what school one went to.

The website recommends checking the list of questions provided by webmail servers alongside any information posted on social networking sites like Facebook and ensuring they are not related in any way.

Users are also advised to make public as little information as possible, especially if passwords can be connected to any of the information.

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